No...they wanted to keep people interested by tantalizing them with what the Advent are getting (which I daresay is a lot more interesting than the new TEC bonuses)...
At least, that's the theory...I don't buy it either, but I have to admit there's something to it...I mean, we have a thread that's title basically states "I'm bored with TEC only"...and people have very little good stuff to say about corvettes or the new capital ship...but I don't think SD cares enough about short term petty "fan interest" to pull a stunt like that...nevertheless, the "accident" did succeed in getting a lot of interest...corvettes look much more promising, the new advent cap is pretty awesome, and the Advent have some pretty interesting entity modifiers in their tech trees (assuming they eventually work, of course)...
I think someone somewhere thought it'd be funny, or just let it slip nonchalantly...
Or maybe it really was just an accident...though I find that to be a rather unusual accident, seems too....deliberate of an action....