Holy cow, somebody actually *improved* a product instead of finding a way to pad the profit margin? This is unheard of!

What probably happened is that you got nice, fresh stock. The matches on store shelves can be there for ages, after sitting in a distribution warehouse.

Fresh strike-anywhere matches work well, but IME they don't store worth a darn. It's the phosphor tip that always fails first. If I have strike-anywheres in a kit, I always include the striker from book matches just in case.