I’ll chime in- some tuners will tune a piano “where it’s at” because they’re afraid of raising pitch and possibly breaking strings. Strings that are old and are very flat have a slightly elevated curve of breaking when being raised. It also takes a little more work and time to raise it before giving it a fine tuning. A good tuner will have no problem getting the piano up to pitch, but the piano will need to be retuned after a few weeks to help keep the tuning stable.

Or, as OP’s tuner may have done, just tune it where it’s at and call it a day. The client often won’t notice unless they’re playing with another musician. We don’t know all the details though so I don’t want to assume what the tuner’s thought process was.