[svat]

My point is that it's not a simplification, it's precisely how the language works: bindings between values and names (JavaScript has no separate notion of memory pointer; everything is a "pointer"). (Similarly for Python: https://nedbatchelder.com/text/names1.html) Describing variables in this way gives readers the correct understanding, and the analogy of tentacles is no harder than that of boxes. Such things are what I most appreciated, that the author manages to be approachable without sacrificing accuracy.

[pier25]

If the explanation doesn't mention memory positions then it is a simplification.

[svat]

JavaScript does not provide a way for the programmer to access memory positions (and e.g. does not guarantee that the the language runtime will maintain unvarying memory positions), so it doesn't make sense to talk about memory positions: there's nothing to be gained at that level of abstraction. (Unless you'd call it a "simplification" to not talk of electrons and transistors too, in which case fine, yes it's a simplification in that sense.)