The author is confused over terminology. The control strip above the keyboard is called the Touch Bar. The main pointer input device is the Trackpad. Neither is called Touch Pad.
I don't think he's obligated to use the "proper" terminology unless he was a software engineer /sarcasm.
Snarkiness aside though, I really don't think using the original term decreases his credibility at all.
In the article for this device, which Wikipedia canonically calls a "touchpad", we see comments on its terminology and the only place in the history section where the device is called a "trackpad" is jarring and happens to be in a sentence about Apple (where I would argue it should be corrected).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchpad
"""Apple Inc introduced touchpads to the modern laptop in the PowerBook series in 1994, using Cirque’s GlidePoint technology;[8] later PowerBooks and MacBooks would use Apple-developed trackpads."""
"""As touchpads began to be introduced in laptops in the 1990s, there was often confusion as to what the product should be called. No consistent term was used, and references varied, such as: glidepoint, touch sensitive input device, touchpad, trackpad, and pointing device.[9][10][11]"""
"""Apple's PowerBook 500 series was its first laptop to carry such a device,[citation needed] which Apple refers to as a "trackpad"."""
This is precisely the confusion that's causing people to raise eyebrows at the term.
I know, that's why I'm saying arguing about touchpad vs trackpad is stupid.
The post you replied to is correct, but not usefully correct. It sounds overly pedantic and elitist, like arguing that one shouldn't call "LEGO bricks" "Legos".
Besides, neither you nor I nor anyone reading or writing anything on HN is a normal user. If you're not a little butthurt by people using the wrong technical terms for things, you are in the wrong place and/or the wrong line of work.