[mindslight]

This feels like a typical political comment (or youtube ad) but applied to electronics. Calling the common model false, writing it off as "weird", and then making up a new model with a hint of truth but still less explanatory power than the original one. Like, just don't.

It seems like you're stuck focusing on where the energy comes from, hence wanting to talk about the "powerful DC signal" (eg power supply). But the concept of amplification says nothing about where the energy comes from - it's merely talking about the magnitude of a signal being increased. You can also say "an audio amplifier requires a power supply". Multiple concepts apply to the same situation! This is true everywhere in life, but it's easier to ignore for software and impossible to ignore for electronic design.