There is very little to be gained or added from pointing out this was optional -- for some reason the CTO decided to make a point of it. I think the tone matte

There is very little to be gained or added from pointing out this was optional -- for some reason the CTO decided to make a point of it. I think the tone matters. Particularly for matters like this. To my ear (and many who replied to that Tweet) this reads as "we've decided to do you a favor." Which is very much not the case.