Interesting! Maybe they changed the process at some point. I don’t own the book, but a while ago I had a quick look at my brother-in-law’s copy and it also had terrible printing quality.
I think it is more likely that, depending on your geographical location, they use different printing shops (they pick the one which is closer to you). And printing shops have widely disparate qualities, impossible to predict beforehand.
In the last years I've returned several 100-dollar Springer "hardcovers" because they were of laughably bad quality. Now I take only second-hand copies or buy them in bookstores, it's the only way to be sure.
Luckily you can return stuff to Amazon, but makes me think, does that mean someone else will have to deal with purchasing that book?