Maybe the disconnect is that there's an implicit "[What we see as] Black holes might be defects in spacetime" in front of the headline. We can't get close to b

Maybe the disconnect is that there's an implicit "[What we see as] Black holes might be defects in spacetime" in front of the headline. We can't get close to black holes, maybe ever but certainly not currently, so the difference between what the article is saying and how you're reading it is a bit philosophical IMO. The article glossed over it a bit, but from the sounds of it, every observation we know of from our position (and current technology level) would match.