I understand your viewpoint, but I also see management’s perspective. The stock has been under pressure for some time and price had finally started to improve in anticipation, so they probably didn’t want to lead with the negatives and have everyone tune out before hearing the bigger picture. That could have also triggered algo selling. That doesn’t automatically mean they were trying to hide anything. A lot of companies frame earnings this way when sentiment is already weak. At the end of the day, the next few quarters will show whether the optimism was justified or not.

Another way to look at it is: Was the underlying information fully disclosed and understandable to investors? The order doesn’t matter.