He's a ridiculously successful pop star! His PR team has a PR team! There's at least a handful of people whose sole full time job is to make sure that he doesn't make any mistakes out of ignorance that might make him look bad.

This was on purpose and with all pertinent information available.

In this case, is there a functional difference? Will this pop star suddenly realize that the workers were protesting and join them in solidarity? Or will he go back to his life and continue to ignore the problem?

At a certain point, ignorance and malice qchievw the same effect.