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It is a linguistic trick. Same as "credit card" (a loan card), credit implies the opposite.

No. Credit, as in implied future payment, literally does mean loan, and another meaning of the word (opposite of debit) is also what happens when you use a credit card - an intermediate credits the merchant account so you don't need a separate line of credit for each one.

You're making the same not-even-faulty assumption as the article author, that a word with several related meanings is somehow wrong or a trick or at all tough for the average person to comprehend.

Sure it does, like many English words that have different meanings. And a marketer will choose the word with the fewest negative connotations.

You can use a credit card as a loan card, sure, by taking cash out an ATM or not paying your entire balance at the end of the month. And yes, loads of people obviously do that, and that's a trick.

But can you really say it's a sleight of hand that soda isn't called 'liquid obesity, period.' by its manufacturers even though that's the result if used to the extent they'd want you to?

No, because soda doesn't have another meaning.

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