I think I would agree that they might've been doing something else internally if they were simply saying that F9 wasn't effective to reuse (like ULA had said at

I think I would agree that they might've been doing something else internally if they were simply saying that F9 wasn't effective to reuse (like ULA had said at one point). But they had been arguing that it wasn't worth pursuing for themselves, arguing that they didn't need to launch that often. That, to me, comes off as a bit more honest since they're not really saying anything positive about themselves.