These wolves were modified based on dna from dire wolves, and presumably made to be as close to the scientist’s understanding of dire wolves as possible.

I guess you missed this part:

And Colossal claims it has turned grey wolves into dire wolves by making just 20 gene edits?

That is the claim. In fact, five of those 20 changes are based on mutations known to produce light coats in grey wolves, Shapiro told New Scientist. Only 15 are based on the dire wolf genome directly and are intended to alter the animals’ size, musculature and ear shape.