It's not mixed messages, it's lying. It was wrong when Bethesda did it and it's still wrong now. No excuses.
I'm not convinced he was lying. They were very vague on multiplayer, maybe it's a feature they wanted to try but weren't sure if it would make it in time. Maybe you can 'see each other' - like ghosts of prior players based on planets they visited? Maybe that is the easter egg?
Pitchforks are not pretty. I only posted about the packet capture (and encourage others to look too) and the pause issue to set expectations. It's still a great game, IMHO.