This house was purchased last year, prior to the most recent frenzy and no they didn’t spend anywhere near a mil on it, nor is it dilapidated. It’s actually easy to identify in Zillow if you bother to look.
Edit: seller’s -> buyer’s
I never said it was. It's the buyer's fault. Caveat emptor.
They have choices. They could have purchased a home in the suburbs but chose to purchase within the Seattle city limits, where the homes and neighborhoods are much older and the infrastructure is dilapidated. The home almost assuredly has no air conditioning, and depending on the year it was built, the electrical is probably outdated as well. Bonus points if it has a buried heating oil tank in the front yard, which a lot of homes in Northgate do, which they'd have to remedy and do an environmental cleanup for.
The article seems to indicate they are WFH tech employees who do "six hours of [Zoom] calls a day" so they could have lived literally anywhere in the metro area. Buying in this neighborhood was a lifestyle choice. They chose to live closer to "city fun" in exchange for shitty internet. I live in the sticks. My neighbors work for Google. We both have gigabit-class internet. We compromised; driving into the city with traffic sucks beyond comprehension.
Entitlement to Comcast internet is pretty low on the list of concerns if you're insisting on buying in that neighborhood.