macOS Sequoia not available from internet recovery

Here's the current reinstall article:

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

• Command-R: When you press and hold these two keys at startup, Recovery offers the current version of the most recently installed macOS.
• Option-Command-R: When you press and hold these three keys at startup, Recovery might offer the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
• Shift-Option-Command-R: When you press and hold these four keys at startup, Recovery might offer the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

As you noted, what you quoted has never worked as stated in the guide you linked. The above linked article seems more realistic (I have bolded, underlined and italicized the important bits).

Apple has never been good at documentation. You are expected to learn from experience. Your experience told you what you referenced never actually happened, but you hoped that was wrong.

I have found the support articles tend to be more accurate. The guides tend to be what the designers expected to happen. The articles tend to be what actually happens. But, with Apple, no documentation survives first contact with reality.

That’s pretty much normal. Hence:

This issue appears to be recurring:

Sequoia is an upgrade. Recovery installs the most recently installed macOS.

If you upgraded to Sequoia and then go to recovery, does it offer Sequoia or your previous macOS?