If the object isn't marked and isn't covered by enough snow to safely ride over it then yeah, it does matter. To quote the article;
That's going to result in possibly tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills. One of ski patrol's major jobs is to close any unsafe terrain and with what I read about the case it sounds like the resort was found at fault because the hazard wasn't marked.
I think what makes this article a little strange is that that they're saying he "collided with a wall." Usually when you say something like that it means you run headfirst into a wall, whereas the rest of the article makes it seem like the wall was mostly buried except for a small section that was disguised by new snow. I could easily see how someone would be cruising down the mountain and hit an unmarked object like that.