How can this be in anyway mistaken?
Well, of course it can't. The only way to truly assess the slewing of their perception would be the re-enactment I mentioned. Sadly, I feel this would be deemed seriously OTT, given 'that's no excuse' outcome where there is still a major difference between 28R and C even with the taxi lights of the holding aircraft. And that's another point: most crews would turn off any light that might be distracting for a landing aircraft. Is there any information about the real quantity of the 'mass of lights' on C?
IMHO, this aberration is only bewildering because, as far as we know, both pilots were affected.
Of course, it may turn out that there was a much greater stream of protests on the flight deck than we know about.