No, not impossible. As just one example, people often do teardowns of things such as battery packs, so a little bit of simple research can often let one find out what's been discovered, and even what circuitry/chips have been used in the design.
The 'shuffling' you speak of is only one method of balancing, and from what I can gather, is not commonly implemented.
If the balancing is done by simple discharging of cell groups that have quickly reached their max voltage, then you could still have a design that needs the power supply to either provide a trickle charge, or even kick back in now and again during the balancing phase.
A very vague quote, with no citation/reference source so of questionable validity right from the start! however it (and other text on the matter) seems to be suggesting that for lower voltage packs in things such as drills, they often don't bother with balancing, because if you initially use matched cells, the battery pack will generally last long enough to outlive the warranty period!
But also - "packs above 24v should have balancing'. There we are then. The majority of ebike battery packs are 36/48v ! so they need balancing !!
