[dilemma]

People in technology use the machine metaphor for the human mind literally. See neural networks and even basic terms like Artificial Intelligence (there are no and have never been any intelligent machine or program). This certainly is not a strawman.

[sn9]

Please point me to a technologist who believes the brain to be a von Neumann architecture.

The existence of misunderstandings by lay outsiders does not, in itself, invalidate the use of the metaphor, especially as it's used within the actual research community.