I think it is because the equipment changed dependent on context. In Dieselgate the cars changed their engine management when they got into a test cycle...
Dieselgate was about cheating environment sensors. This is more like DeereGate, locking out external service shops but even when you are supposed by law to allow them service (and even after providing them 20k page service manuals which they are supposed to follow to make appropriate service, but you lock them out anyway).
From my reading, they also seem to have seeded apparently random failures into the product, with a hidden reset key combo, even for those using them as support. Possibly to make themselves look good (our products may break randomly, but at least we fixed the "problem" quickly) going into the tendering process for support.
That Watergate building name had created quite the meme!
I thought it was a good reference. In both cases, the manufacturer placed illicit, hidden code that that could (and probably should) get it in trouble with the law.
And under test it even performed “too well”
functioned normally? Intoxicating people with fumes is hardly what the user wants.
Some car users even do special modifications for "rolling coal", so that they can intoxicate other people with fumes.