I also thought the original article was better, and clearer. As you say—it's the hidden assumptions which are interesting.
In maths exams at school the problems are always presented in the form of: "a random family was chosen from ...". (Similar to "a smooth cube is resting on a smooth surface".
In real life, it's more difficult. The original article looks at real life, whereas the 300-word version has reduced it to the exam version. Of course it's "easier" to understand the exam version, but this wasn't the point.