It's because smartphones are a goldmine of data sensors always collecting information on their users. Microsoft failed their attempts at making a phone catch on, but if they can get laptops to collect the same (or similar) data they could become very profitable products.
Maybe for players under say 1800 elo online, but for players above that this won't work -- "bluffing" isn't really a thing until you're at the very very highest levels of chess, and even then the bluffs are only during the openings and if they call your bluff you are only worse by 0.1-0.4 at the most.
I like having to drop the dog, it makes it easier to figure out the rules initially without instruction. Also it forces more explicit play, rather than just checking where you're allowed to drop the dog. Obviously it's not very hard to figure out, but I'm imagining kids might end up playing this--having them drop the dog makes sure they understand the solution.
> the first map with Poland [...] doesn't explain much.
Reasoning that disputes it:
> The Russian partition [...] was the cause of the area in blue being poor and underdeveloped
For these to be contradictory statements, the Russian partition must refer to something meaningfully different than what the map with Poland refers to. Is that true? I'm no history buff, I'll leave it up to others to say.