It was made later since the discussion about photo also only surfaced later. And of course there was some looting, but the punishment for it was harsh, so they might want to protect the soldier in photo just in case someone not familiar with Red Army equipment (or anticommunist propagandists) made the accusation. Remember that even Zhukov was once accused of possessing items from looting and was so scared of that accusation he lived in abject fear for few weeks. Ultimately he wasn't officially accused because he was celebrated war hero, but he was sidelined somewhat, he also never forgiven this which might been a factor in him later joining Khrushchev (Losurdo wrote about it i think).

should’ve just went with “so what”

Right, after horrors Soviet soldiers witnessed in occupied USSR and Poland while marching west i'm quite amazed Germany wasn't completely razed to the ground.