Other than the academic discussion on how the cases are physically made, this whole thing kinda falls into the "so what, who cares" category for me for just the reason you mention.
That said, is it the Borealis owner who is butt hurt or just the author of the article?
By this I mean, let's say Carlos decides to create a homage to (or copy of) some watch and contracts some Chinese manufacturer to knock out 300 cases. Carlos sells his 300 watches and makes his profit. I'm not certain, if I were Carlos, I'd care what happened to my case design once I was through with my production run. I'd be off to my next thing.
If, however, the Chinese manufacturer sold my design while I was still selling my watches (thereby creating competition for my design) I'd be upset.