Nah, they can do it because they have money behind it which allowed them to acquire tech people interested in collaborating with them (being witness). Plus, in their niche, they have profile and a huge Rolodex.
Most people couldn’t find sufficient witnesses to actually implement a full-scale DPOS.
AFAIK the first action is a presale in January tho. No roll-out yet. As such this summary could still lead to an actual SMT (as well as them going solo). Both seem still possible, although the highlighted bits seem to point at a snapshot & [under the radar] fork.