No.
It's a polite request to contact the seller before moving to opening a Dispute.
Most honest sellers will try to correct problems before third party intervention is necessary.
In fact, if you were to open a Dispute, the first suggestion by eBay is to contact the seller and attempt resolution that way.
EBay would prefer to stay out of it. Mediating problems calls for bandwidth and labour. Business expenses any business, eBay and Paypal included, would prefer not to have.
And the seller is giving you an explanation for their request. EBay does penalize sellers involved in Disputes, even if they/we act promptly to correct the problem. The Defect problem recently instituted leads to raised fees, loss of Top Rated Seller status, lower placement in Search, a Hold on customer payents, and restriction on the number and value of items listed.
It's a draconian problem, and one that is as likely to harm an honest seller whose customer acts too fast as an out and out crook.
I note in particular that the seller was careful to ask that all communication be through eBay Messages, which allows the negotiations to be reviewed by eBay, and not through private emails which cannot be monitored.
Should the seller have included the note? Probably not, but not for the reasons you mention.
It is a poor business practice to let a customer think that anything could possibly go wrong with the purchase. But that is a PR decision, nothing more.
