I don’t think that’s the case at all. He was telling you that they spent a lot of time on the trashcan, knowing that sounds a little ridiculous. That’s where the humour was, not in the designers at Apple not actually caring about the trashcan. It was certainly not set up as an ironic statement in any way.

If Apple didn’t really spend a lot of time on the trashcan then he was just dishonest, but not saying something in jest.