That's exactly it. The difference, as far as I have understood it, is that there was a similar move that is typical, but in that particular situation, pretty simple reasoning (of the highly abstract "if this then that so this must lead to that" sense) leads a human to conclude that this version of the move is superior.
So while atypical in the sense of "occurring infrequently", it was not a difficult move to find for a player of that level – all the pro commentators saw it pretty much right away.
This might be the one weakness of AlphaGo, which is interesting.
Sounds similar to what a human would do then: you wouldn't spend much time simulating in your head what would happen if your opponent made a very atypical move or a move that would seem very bad at first thought.