I think the point is that, whatever probability a potential target would have placed on this sort of thing yesterday, those calculations have shifted now. Previously it was more abstract and something of this scale and physical attack would have been little more than a thought experiment. If a news pundit on Fox or CNN last night had been claiming China was doing this with Huawei phones then many people would have looked at it as fear mongering while of course knowing China has in all likelihood setup other supply chain attacks. Today it would sound a lot more likely.

Wait, so was the Supermicro attack real? There was a lot of skepticism around it, and nobody was able to confirm it with certainty. Then a few years later Bloomberg unexpectedly doubled down on it, again without proof (if I'm not mistaken). Was there anything new after that? I haven't been following the story since then.