> Reuters calling the switch a "font" change instead of a typeface change is troubling

Come on, they're writing for a general audience, not a bunch of pedantic typographers and developers.

> a society that now casually refers to all pasta as "spaghetti"

I have never experienced this; in what contexts have you?

> taught to children

We were 100%, never taught this (in the UK).

> A simple correction would stop this spiral

It wouldn't, it would just mean fewer people understood what the story was about.