I thought the circuit that powers the cooking was broken because, when the water has boiled away, heat rises and a magnet holding the circuit closed is weakened by the heat, which allows a spring to pull the magnet away and break the heating circuit. (Magnets are weaker when hot.)
Technology Connections: https://youtu.be/RSTNhvDGbYI
So it's possible that earlier designs didn't use magnetism, and the magnet-based design was a simplification of earlier water-boiling-at-100c-based designs.
I wouldn't have downvoted you for it, but it sounds like you missed this from the article:
> While the rice cooked in the inset pot, a bimetallic switch measured the temperature in the external pot.
While more modern rice cookers may use curie point magnetic switches, that's not what the original rice cooker used.
While both you and they are correct that more modern devices work that way, that's not how this one works.
It's possible that they didn't miss that fact, but their comment reads as being a direct response to the discussion of the control circuit of the first rice cooker.