I think this is because story/narrative is more scalable. 

In the beginning you can acquire customers by just telling them what problems you are solving for them.

But to get to 

Shopify

levels of scale you can't do that just by communicating problems you are solving. Rather you need to communicate realities that you are making possible. 

As in the old days 

Tobias Lutke

could get by positioning Shopify as a way to circumvent the need to code your own

e-commerce

website. However after years of successful growth you eventually need a more life-changing narrative to sell to broader markets. 

In Shopify's case there's the story of arming the rebels... I think this is more a narrative to sell to the press. But the big narrative they sell to customers is become a boss, quit your job, stuff like that.