I don't think you are.

I've seen plenty of "introduction to indexing" articles that are far easier to read and introduce the concepts behind indexes in a more approachable manner. If this was intended as "Index Theory 101", it seems to include some good basic information, but presented in a way that makes it seem far more complicated than it actually is - particularly when we read the caveats about what is out of scope and what is being deferred to other discussions.

If it's intended as "Practical Index Basics 101 for SQL Server", well, it appears to also miss the mark for its intended audience.

I guess that's why I'm so curious about the original reason this article was written and who the target audience was.

I'd rather refer someone new to the topic to Gail's series that starts here: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Indexing/68439/.

Ah, well. I've probably devoted too much time today to puzzling over this particular article.