I remember attending a German language course in Berlin (25 years ago) with some other international students and this american kid who was railing against using die and der for objects that clearly had no gender: "what do you say?? die snowboard? der snowboard???" (it's das XD)
I think they took some liberties to make it seem "more German". See also the umlaut in "liebe aüf den ersten blick".
das is what non-german people think it's what should be, and that makes it the correct one. simulacrum/simulacra, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story, etc