[ewjordan]

You're right that they're not conflating the phenomena, but to say that two events are only simultaneous if they're on the light cone is still incorrect - that's the boundary of the region of simultaneity, whereas the OP was suggesting that it's the entirety of it.

Since the light hasn't reached us yet, it's perfectly valid to state that in some frame of reference, the event is happening right now. 2022 is the last possible time at which we could make that claim because the events become causally separated, which is I think what OP was getting at, though the wording was a bit off.