"He didn't say he'd never heard it before; ..."

Nor did he say that he had.

"... he said he still has trouble believing it." [my emphasis]

At the time of this reply to your post, it does not say that.

At the time of replying to his post, it did not say that.

I actually went to some effort to ensure that something like that was not implied before replying to him:

• "I, for one, “struggle with disbelief” ..." is present tense — it doesn't say "... have struggled with disbelief and continue to do so ..." or "... am still struggling with disbelief ...".
• "... PerlMonks does, indeed, appear to have ..." is also present tense — it doesn't say "... still appears to have ...". Furthermore, that actually suggests a current and immediate reaction.

So, the grammar and general tone all convey the impression that this is all new to him; however, what clearly identifies his intention of suggesting this is something he's never come across, in all the time that he's spent on this site, is this:

"Here, much to my six-years-old surprise, this does not appear to be the case."

If you believe his post does somehow imply what you suggest, then we'll have to agree to differ as I see no such implication.

While I suspect it's unlikely, if you think his post has changed, perhaps consider it with: "Edit: restore original content and show updates." and I will happily update my node accordingly.