They are "clearly wrong" when talking to geeks about specific types of problems. For most most people this means nothing, and multiplying it is fine. And for a lot of situations where you are considering batch jobs, multiplying it is fine as a quick illustration. It is not as if the raw numbers tell you anything anyway, since the characteristics of the system are so unusual.

They miscalculated how people would interpret it, and got burned. But they've been clear about what it is they actually mean the whole time.