"Trevor Thom book for confirmation"
The last thing I would use a TT book for is confirmation of some relatively obscure point of aviation regs.
"If I recall my conversations with the CFI correctly"
Likewise. Most instructors don't understand any of this stuff, no need to.
Much of the ANO is badly drafted anyway, and the CAA has issued countless flyers which are equally ambiguous and which don't make it clear that something is advisory. I don't know why they do that. I suppose they have a number of people in there who like writing all these flyers and who can't be bothered to pass everything by their legal department. I know they can do it right, because some of their stuff is very well written, and has obviously been gone over.
The aviation mags will (usually) publish any old nonsense without checking (unsuprising; are they going to pay an aviation lawyer for an opinion on each point?) so this stuff makes its way into airport bars. The copious number of online pilot forums just keeps propagating the stuff...