Could it be that Intel is communicating the way it does because they're afraid of lawsuits? I mean, if they admit that their processors are faulty, then they may have to recall basically all their processors.
How can that even happen? My laptop has a vulnerable i3 chip, but I'm not giving it or the chip to anybody, I need the computer. And I guess no data centers would "temporarily close" in order to change CPUs (though maybe they can do that gradually).
Back in 1994 when the Pentium had the FDIV bug, they offered to replace the chip. Wikipedia says "Although it turned out that only a small fraction of Pentium owners bothered to get their chips replaced, the financial impact on the company was significant."