retrolefty:
I had hoped to learn something following this thread, but I am more confused now then before this thread was started. :~
This topic has descended into a discussion of the nuances of the two languages so it's not surprising there isn't much to take away. In other words, I suspect we're all confused. 
So can someone explain it in simple words that a hardware guy could understand? What must I come away with from this topic that is important to my writing 'better' code in the future?
By far, the most important thing is to write code that your future self can understand and maintain. Don't use something just because someone else claims it is the right thing to do. Very sparingly use things that you don't understand well. Write code that you can quickly understand. In other words, know thyself and code for thyself. Doing so helps now with correctness and debugging and helps later with maintenance.
The simple fact is that bool, byte, and boolean are almost perfectly interchangeable. true is almost perfectly interchangeable with 1 and false is almost perfectly interchangeable with 0. They are all just a means to an end. Use whatever works best to help you understand the code now and in the future.
What kind of unintended bugs could I put into my sketch if I misunderstand what is trying to be communicated here.
I can't think of any.