It's quoted "out of context" because it is generally considered to be a persuasive obiter dictum.
And that's how law quotes work. Sometimes the facts of the case bear on obiter dicta. Sometimes they don't. That doesn't change their degree of persuasiveness.
> because the transaction, upon its face, lies outside the plain intent of the statute. To hold otherwise would be to exalt artifice above reality and to deprive the statutory provision in question of all serious purpose.
...to the weird accounting used by Starbucks where their profitability (or otherwise) is chosen to please the people they talk to.
The phrase "plain intent of the statute" has an actual legal meaning. And it's not "we intend this statute to raise as much money as possible, kthxbai".
And, again, the courts will not help the tax man. That is, they will not read the laws in a way that places the onus of maximising the tax revenue on the tax payer.
Judge Learned Hand is, in this case, concisely explained that principle before going on to explain that it doesn't apply because the respondent didn't obey the law.
Legal reasoning is actually very simple. The first step is to be consider separate things separately.
The context doesn't change the principle. At all. That case was about a party who didn't exploit the fully legal options.
Every single day judgements are written where a principle is outlined and then, when the principle has been breached, the judge says so.
Does that change the principle? No. Because it is the principle.
Certain obiter dicta are taken as "persuasive" by other courts because they form such a concise statement of a legal principle that they can't really be improved on.
The two quotes I gave above are widely used in tax law in multiple countries because they elegantly state the general principle that a taxpayer has no legal obligation to help the tax man raise more money.
And that's how law quotes work. Sometimes the facts of the case bear on obiter dicta. Sometimes they don't. That doesn't change their degree of persuasiveness.