I know this sort of criticism can be annoying, but despite commenting on HN I would surely qualify as a 'lay reader' in this context, and I have a strong preference for authors taking care to either tell the whole truth or flag that a potentially misleading simplification has been made -- even if the falseness seems like a technicality to the author. If I notice it then I lose faith in the author's credibility, and if I don't then now I've 'learned' something false.