Is "sorry you are having difficulty" a "weasel phrase"?
"Weasel phrases" are non-apologies. A simple non-apology is something like, "I'm sorry you are feeling that way". Let's say Bob wrecks Alice's car after coming back from the bar last night. When Alice wakes up, she notices the car is wrecked and she will be unable to take a client out for lunch in it. Alice becomes angry at Bob as a result and indicates he is responsible for wrecking the car and not telling her the night before, so she could get another car to drive. Alice would want a resolution, either in the moment (Bob giving Alice another car) or an assurance that it won't happen again (a real apology accepting responsibility). An "I'm sorry you are feeling this way" from Bob becomes the non-acknowledgment of the actual cause of the emotional output from Alice. Instead, it deflects back to Alice for resolve. This is tedious, at best.
A good tip for Bob avoiding these "you statements"[1] is to leave out "you" as the object of his stated emotional output. Instead, Bob could say "I hear you are feeling sad and angry because I had a wreck and came home last night and went straight to bed without telling you". This comment from Bob becomes a non-you statement by splitting on the "because" and the "without". There exists a separate acknowledgement of the emotional output from Alice, "I hear you are feeling sad and angry" and an acceptance of the action and result, "I wrecked your car and didn't tell you about it."
It is my opinion you get a lot of these types of comments in public forums, where the conversation is a matter of public record. When given the choice between leaving a public trace of "We were the cause of your difficulty...we'll fix you up though." vs. "We hear you are having issues...", I do think companies will tend to do the later, waiting to give the more specific comment to the recipient outside the public view. Maybe our tendency to think we need these comments aired in public is some sort of error in our reassignment of another's emotions. Their emotional output isn't ours, but we may have empathy for it.
As others have mentioned, the comment comes from someone who seems to care about these things, so if Alice trusts Bob, she'll let the comment slide knowing he'll come through for her in the future.
"Having difficulty" means it's still possible, just difficult and - dark patterns aside - the OP could still succeed if they knew the right steps. Given what OP said though, that's not the case here, so yeah, that phrasing is deflecting responsibility. Definite weasel wording.
"Weasel phrases" are non-apologies. A simple non-apology is something like, "I'm sorry you are feeling that way". Let's say Bob wrecks Alice's car after coming back from the bar last night. When Alice wakes up, she notices the car is wrecked and she will be unable to take a client out for lunch in it. Alice becomes angry at Bob as a result and indicates he is responsible for wrecking the car and not telling her the night before, so she could get another car to drive. Alice would want a resolution, either in the moment (Bob giving Alice another car) or an assurance that it won't happen again (a real apology accepting responsibility). An "I'm sorry you are feeling this way" from Bob becomes the non-acknowledgment of the actual cause of the emotional output from Alice. Instead, it deflects back to Alice for resolve. This is tedious, at best.
A good tip for Bob avoiding these "you statements"[1] is to leave out "you" as the object of his stated emotional output. Instead, Bob could say "I hear you are feeling sad and angry because I had a wreck and came home last night and went straight to bed without telling you". This comment from Bob becomes a non-you statement by splitting on the "because" and the "without". There exists a separate acknowledgement of the emotional output from Alice, "I hear you are feeling sad and angry" and an acceptance of the action and result, "I wrecked your car and didn't tell you about it."
It is my opinion you get a lot of these types of comments in public forums, where the conversation is a matter of public record. When given the choice between leaving a public trace of "We were the cause of your difficulty...we'll fix you up though." vs. "We hear you are having issues...", I do think companies will tend to do the later, waiting to give the more specific comment to the recipient outside the public view. Maybe our tendency to think we need these comments aired in public is some sort of error in our reassignment of another's emotions. Their emotional output isn't ours, but we may have empathy for it.
As others have mentioned, the comment comes from someone who seems to care about these things, so if Alice trusts Bob, she'll let the comment slide knowing he'll come through for her in the future.
[1] https://www.cnvc.org/