I think you're probably right about the concept, but I didn't know that it was "a thing" until the documentary The Fog of War[1]. Excellent retrospective about Vietnam.
Wargamers tend to have narrow elitist focus when it comes to boardgaming. I think its because they see their hobby as more than simply playing a childrens game for the fun of it, rather they see it as a more serious exploration of history. Since it has a war theme, I agree with you that Battleship completely revolves around FOW.. Stratego is another example of a classic boardgame that does this as well. Neither one of those games touch on "friendly" FOW mentioned in the article though. If you want to try a lighter game that implements "friendly" FOW give Memoir 44 a spin. Hidden information is also a standard feature of many games that don't have anything to do with war...poker for example.
Is that the old paper game where you place shots on grid references to sink your opponent's ships? Or something else?