Why add pigment. Every stood next to a white wall in bright sunshine? There's also the aesthetic reasons, people don't just optimize for cost, they like things they live with to look a certain way.

The likely reason is a bunch of reasons, including human nature, herd mentality, or what we today call going viral. Possibly it was just a really good paint salesman that had a load of spare red going cheap.

The tone didn't bug me in the slightest, it took it for what it was, a bit of fluff writing that had a pretty photo to look at.