I definitely don't believe that there was any deliberate attempt to mislead but I do believe that the messaging got muddled along the way, perhaps a lack of communication in the midst of a harried, long and fraught election season.
I do agree that they really just need to bump up the individual relief payments to 2K. It would be better than having to explain and over explain how and why their messaging went sideways to befuddled and possibly irritated Americans expecting $2,000.
About Politico, I probably read 5 articles of theirs per year (if that), so I doubt that anything they say, or write permeates much of the consciousness of the average person. It all feels a bit too "Inside Baseball" to me.