Article note: This is a ...narrow... view. Most modern unix-like systems are absolutely lousy with binaries that behave differently when called with different names.
All the common preboot environments and small embedded linuxes have a busybox type thing where _one binary_ provides most of the POSIX environment via symlinked names. Etc.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”