Agree with all your points, I remember the blurb being published on that engine in 2000, I thought it was a typo until I double checked. And you’re correct on the math, half the compression doesn’t equal half the psi, many other factors are involved including valve timing.
Here’s an example of a vanilla VR6 engine under test, the reading is a little probably due to piston crown and combustion chamber carbonization but the VR6 runs at lower pressures than the 2.0 liter anyway : http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1510186