I think that’s what they were saying. For those, it is likely indeed malice. For friends and family, it’s likely just stupidity or ignorance.

Doing bad things (“evildoing” if we want to express it in a morally absolutist way) is generally not for the pleasure of it, but it’s simply doing what’s good for oneself with little or no limits (if one can get away with it) on how bad the consequences for others are of one’s personal upside maximization actions.

Whilst “malice” is per the dictionary a specific kind of doing bad things were one actually wants to harm or hurt others, hence that saying with that word specifically can’t be easilly turned around (especially as actual malice is pretty rare), if you use “calous selfishness” instead the reverse saying (“don’t attribute to stupidity what can be explained by calous selfishness”) is often true, especially when it comes to people intelligent enough to be able to figure out the broader consequences of their actions.

Even in the event that salesmen, politicians, corporations, etc, are genuinely and naively ignorant of something that causes an issue, their station is such that they should still be held fully at fault. A layperson just going about life the best they can is expected to fail, and make mistakes. But someone elevated to a position of power, or who’s entire schtick is attempting to gain from others, should be held to a much higher standard. Naturally, there are laypeople who can be malicious and feign ignorance, such as there are corporations that can have previously undetected safety issues that end up causing an accident. In the latter case, though, it makes far more sense to assume malicious intent until the company can prove they’re not negligent. Humans are social creatures who need to extent trust and form bonds with others, but extending that trust to people who are incapable for caring about you personally is a massive mistake.