Yes, Thinkpads have traditionally had the best linux hardware support of all laptops, ever since there were x86 laptops (the easiest installs were thinkpads, and toshiba, early on).
Now, this piece of hardware removes support for the standard way to access the hard drive. Why did they do that? Hardware engineer couldn't fix a glitch in a new chipset in time to fix the issue in time to ship? Exceedingly unlikely. You only change those chips when you have to, because of cost or design constraints, and Lenovo is shipping other, similar hardware that does work with standard storage drivers.
Someone (one person!) managed to flash the BIOS to add AHCI support, but certainly I don't need to point out that this level of tinkering is equivalent to a crypto secure boot situation for well over 99% of laptop-buyers. That is, they would not be able to defeat either.
Now, a large portion of those buyers are not even aware of linux, so it's very easy for them not to care. Some people take umbrage to the argument-from-not-caring (I've got mine! My video plays fine! etc.), not because you have shown that their position is wrong, but because it seems to them that you are arguing that you understand that they are screwed, you are not, and "too bad for you".
I use mine solely to make sure I don't miss calls texts, and appointments. But you know yourself. Would you be tempted to load flappy bird onto it right away? Would you forward your facebook notifications to it?
Fortunately, there isn't enough screen real estate and input methods to get a lot of gaming going.
It probably means that it was written before we had a complete and correct implementation of the STL on all major compilers.
Google around for Visual Studio 6 STL, and take into account the fact that most organizations don't upgrade right away, and you're looking at at least 2005 before you could rely on the STL cross-platform. Maybe much later.
When you visit you friend's house, the data is not under their control, it is under Google's control.
Therefore, Google has a WAY bigger responsibility than most people realize, once they decided to collect this data.