I noticed a different amazing ignorance a few days ago. Googling “image latitude” one finds many sites like this one which think latitude lines are equally spaced along the axis. :smack: (And that page is a “lesson.”)
Besides Occam’s Razor (never ascribe to fraud or malice what can be explained by ignorance or stupidity), I have no answer to OP. I post merely to compliment for a great username/topic combination. 