That seems less of a polite way of saying, and more like a butt-covering lie. Am I supposed to understand from 'misunderstand' that the company might be climbing down from a stupid mistake it made, or actually be misled?
It is nobody's business here but Nick's what happened. Take his words at face value and assume he misunderstood his boss unless you have reason to believe otherwise and it actually matters.
I think this is wrong, Nick initally posted to the Internet - without caveat's - I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask question's and intrigue.
No, and you are not supposed to be able to understand. Otherwise being polite and claiming to have misunderstood something wouldn’t make any sense, as it would be equivalent to blaming the company directly.
Could be either a genuine case of the author hearing one thing and the company meaning another, or a change of mind by the company, possibly involving higher ups.