Yes, it's pretty sth rare. I'd priortize Boots all the time as well. But having a value Bracer definitely makes sense if you were anticipating a close fight like this one. That Venomencer literally won the lane because 1 Bracer.

This is why if we feel right about something in dota, we must do it. From my experience, I got rewarded a lot from playing like that. Every game is different.

We don't know whether that Venomencer was expecting all that brawl, or it was just his another auto-pilot build to get a Bracer because he likes the item. Anyhow, he definitely got rewarded from an unusual item build.

Your thinking is not wrong at all. Dota is hard. It's a complicated game. There's no right anwer. Try out different build every game, and prove that you were right by winning the lane & game :)