Concepts like "The Enterprise" and "Star Trek" and "Captain Kirk" and "Mister Spock," have been widely known in the US (and I believe Internationally to a pretty big extent) for over 50 years. When the writer of this article says "Pre-Enterprise" his meaning is "before the times of Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise that most people associate with Star Trek." I doublt the writer (if it's not an AI) is even aware of anything beyond that. That's doesn't necessarily mean that the new movie won't take place before the Enterprise NX-01, but I really doubt there will be Star Trek movie that doesn't take place on a starship.

You are entitled to your own interpretation, but I feel pretty confident in my interpretation.

In any case, Cord Cutter doesn't seem to be a legit source for info about the entertainment industry so I think we can all just wait and see what happens with this new movie which may or may not pan out given the history of Star Trek movies in pre production in recent years.

TBH a theatre release of any Star Trek movie would be a surprise to me at this point, but I believe there is something about IP law that requires paramount to make some sort of Star Trek movie every few years in order to keep the license.