I think that the confusion comes from the fact that the original MVC was a prescriptive design pattern, but use of the term has expanded way, way beyond its ori

I think that the confusion comes from the fact that the original MVC was a prescriptive design pattern, but use of the term has expanded way, way beyond its original intent. For instance, events between M and V are pretty much required if you're doing it the "old way," but people tend to ignore that and just explicitly route messages through the C. The expression carries a lot less meaning now than it used to.