I think it's more likely that people parrot the sounds without thinking of the words and/or the meaning. Compare to "for all intensive purposes", for example.
I agree with your observation of that common mechanism for mangling English, though. The mis-quote you mention is particularly embarrassing to behold.
As others have pointed out: language is meant to be understood. It would be enough to always take the meaning from a speaker, except if we do that chronically, we begin to lose words. Which will make communication more difficult when you need those specialized meanings.
Bother.