A lot of people in the comments saying that it comes down to an over generalization of the word "caramelize". I would argue that this is instead representative of the very low quality of the vast majority of most recipes which are produced by rank amateurs at best (not to say there are not some pretty impressive amateurs).
There are many higher quality sources of recipes out there today. Serious Eats being one site that rarely fails to get the details correct (though I managed to find a dough recipe that had 1% salt instead of 2% which seems like an error). ATK/Cooks Illustrated rarely has glaring errors on times or quantities. NYT is also pretty reliable. Also many current YouTube chefs are quite diligent. Joshua Weismann is a regular go-to for me.
There are many higher quality sources of recipes out there today. Serious Eats being one site that rarely fails to get the details correct (though I managed to find a dough recipe that had 1% salt instead of 2% which seems like an error). ATK/Cooks Illustrated rarely has glaring errors on times or quantities. NYT is also pretty reliable. Also many current YouTube chefs are quite diligent. Joshua Weismann is a regular go-to for me.