I think both gradients are "wrong" in that they themselves interpolate without correcting for RGB. I think the first example thte original and dither are wrong in the same way, while in the second the dither is more right than the gradient is.
Basically I'm afraid the author of this post is a bit of a "careless eager student" archetype who, while generously pointing out the gotchas that to an expert might be second nature, is also introducing unintentional errors that add some confusion right back.
I'm not expert in color, but with anything with soo many layers of abstractions (physical, astronomical, psycological, various models that approximate each), it helps to work symbolically as long as you possibly can so the work can be audited. Trying to correct from the current "baked" state is numerical hell.
Basically I'm afraid the author of this post is a bit of a "careless eager student" archetype who, while generously pointing out the gotchas that to an expert might be second nature, is also introducing unintentional errors that add some confusion right back.
I'm not expert in color, but with anything with soo many layers of abstractions (physical, astronomical, psycological, various models that approximate each), it helps to work symbolically as long as you possibly can so the work can be audited. Trying to correct from the current "baked" state is numerical hell.