He included the letter he wrote to IANA so, unless you are calling fraud, it is actual history rather than revisionist history.
In that letter he says: “It provides major improvements in security and functionality over existing telnet and rlogin protocols”.
So, while you are correct about rsh, it seems totally fair ( and likely just correct ) for him to say he chose port 22 for its proximity to telnet. Also, since SSH includes SFTP, what he says about FTP checks out as well.
The story is about “why 22” and telnet answers that question better than rsh does. I guess if the question was “why ssh”, the details you added would matter more.
In that letter he says: “It provides major improvements in security and functionality over existing telnet and rlogin protocols”.
So, while you are correct about rsh, it seems totally fair ( and likely just correct ) for him to say he chose port 22 for its proximity to telnet. Also, since SSH includes SFTP, what he says about FTP checks out as well.
The story is about “why 22” and telnet answers that question better than rsh does. I guess if the question was “why ssh”, the details you added would matter more.