RFC 2616 uses the term to describe a property of a normal, opt-in HTTP proxy: "A 'transparent proxy' is a proxy that does not modify the request or response"
In preceding discussion we were using the term in its common usage meaning.
Also, you misrepresent what RFC 2616 says about the its concept of transparency. The part you quoted continues:
"the protocol requires that transparency be relaxed
- only by an explicit protocol-level request when
relaxed by client or origin server
- only with an explicit warning to the end user when relaxed by
cache or client "
From RFC 2616 "The HTTP/1.1 protocol allows origin servers, caches, and clients to explicitly reduce transparency when necessary."
As I said, bad configurations dos not mean the principle is unsound.