I see the confusion. In this article we have a situation where the audience wanted a worse idea. In the Matrix example, the audience came up with a better idea (computer power makes more sense than batteries). So it's the reverse scenario.

But from your "Apparently", I'm guessing you are not aware that's it's a long debunked urban legend. It was always supposed to be batteries. It just makes so much sense for it to be computing power, that the urban legend was really captivating.