Agreed. I can't find any insight or advantage in making this kind of a distinction.

The article attempts to address it by saying that people attempt to implement Model2 on a Javascript front-end. That is awkward. However, it isn't awkward because you should be using real MVC. It is awkward because Javascript is asynchronous and you want to make sure the user interaction stays responsive without devolving into spaghetti. The key insight is "asynchronous" rather than "let's do REAL MVC!"

I've seen this obsessive focus on taxonomy of solutions divorced from specific problems in domains outside computing. I suspect it's a cultural thing. Some cultures obsess over gadgets more than others. That works out until people start arguing about who has the shinier toy, instead of actually using said toys as tools.