I think it's more a question of poor wording than a deliberate attempt to mislead. No-one with any technical expertise would think that Dropbox was incapable o

I think it's more a question of poor wording than a deliberate attempt to mislead. No-one with any technical expertise would think that Dropbox was incapable of reading stored files. They'd have to know the encryption key in order to provide their web interface. So as a technically proficient user, my interpretation of their statement is that they don't give normal employees access to their production encryption keys. However, if the government asks, then presumably they have a legal responsibility to comply. My guess is that the Dropbox employees who made those statements were also technically proficient, and made the same assumptions I did.