Is this "bearing" sentence utterly incorrect?
Short answers

Here's my answers to your questions, in order:


Yes, you are correct that the quote is wrong.
Yes, you are being too dogmatic.

2(a). By the way, you are also wrong.
The quote is incorrect.  Bearing is properly used the way you describe.
I misuse words all the time, but it's not common for me (or anyone I know) to swap bearing and track.




Longer explanation

The quote isn't correct because magnetic track properly refers to the actual direction that the aircraft is moving, as read off the magnetic compass. However, you say that you refer to:


  the "forward course of the aircraft" as either track or heading. (Track, vector over ground, heading, z-axis of vehicle airframe.)


Track and heading are not the same thing, and neither one is necessarily the forward course of the aircraft.  Track is the actual vector over the ground.  Heading is the direction in which the longitudinal axis of the aircraft is aligned.  Course is the correct word for the forward course of the aircraft; the intended (not actual) vector over the ground.

So you've got the definition of bearing right, but you've got track, heading, and course all mixed together.

I've been known to say "bearing" to mean "track", but it's usually only just after I've said "What be our", and just before I'm about to say "ye scurvy dog?"