bought 2001 Gen 1 for my 17 yo daughter

I think AlienMartian was using 'dongle' in the sense of a short 'adapter' cable that plugs into something on each end, as here:

which might be a true description (I don't think I ever opened up my MFD to see how those cables were attached inside, but plugs I could believe, sure).

There was just a communication gap because, looking from outside the box, I don't remember these looking like plug-in adapters ... I remember them looking like cables that emerged from the box and had connectors on their far ends, for the car harness. So even if I hadn't completely forgotten the thing even was built that way, I probably wouldn't have called them 'dongles' myself, though I might have been quicker to say "oh, I think I know what you mean."

In the end it's not so much about whether we said something 'right' or 'wrong' according to some dictionary or wikipedia authority, but what we do when it appears we're not understanding each other, and whether we can make mutual efforts to shrink the gap.

 

It's about battery chemistry, NHW10 used NiCd batteries which have much bigger self-discharge current, it is also able to survive total discharge to 0V (but not reversing). In result if you leave car with battery at 40% SOC and return to it after month long holiday you find it with too low charge to start ICE, with built in charger it was easily recoverable.
NHW11 use NiMh type cells which have very low self-discharge, capacity is increased from 6 to 6.5Ah. In result in typical scenario you don't need additional charger. Of course lock-down verified it a bit.