That was a really good read. Glad I clicked

It's not even one of the funniest pieces of the author, and that says a lot.

I would argue that typos suggest an LLM did not proofread.

that it is surrounded by spaces makes this less likely

Most style guides would call that an error, em dash should be used without surrounding spaces (while an en dash requires them). The only publication I know that has (recently?) eschewed that advice is WaPo. If the idea was to make it more visible, I believe the correct solution would have been for WaPo to use an en dash but render it longer in their typeface.

yes, i agree with you and this is how i used to use emdashes. chatgpt also agrees with you, which is why spaces are a pretty good indicator that it's not an LLM