unpleasant or not "pleasant"?

A while back, I posted a picture of a beautiful courtyard of the place where I was going to spend lots of gig time. Ahhhh!

My friend commented to say that his office has a courtyard like this, and he enjoys walking through when he needs a break.

But that's not exactly what he said.   He's an engineer, and scrupulously factual.   In the process of writing what he considered to be neutral fact, though, he ended up coming off as if he were trying to one-up me. 

The courtyards at our office are bigger and have more vegetation, but they have a very similar feel.   I enjoy walking through them when I need a short break.

Interesting!  I understood, because I have people like this in my life (and I'm often one of them).   But, for others, his natural sense of being factual and not trying to misrepresent —– a quality precisely not based in ego and emotion and competitiveness —– wound up giving an impression of ego and emotion and competitiveness.