I call Fragments-style retcon on the blogs. They were written for BBCAm something like a year after the first season aired in the UK, right? So, I'm guessing that part of the point was to make the Jack/Ianto relationship have more context than the tiny amount of screen time it got, since they'd decided to follow through with it in the second season. Then the blogs for the second season just continued the trend of giving light background, and filling in the bits we didn't get to see.

So, I do think it was deliberate, but not in a pandering way. It's just meant to be supplemental for those who choose to follow along.