Reread it. Ampisand was the actual letter/symbol. It was changed to ampersand as a means of simplifying the terms used.
Yeah...I know....I guess we’ll all then just have to settle for other “they changed it” stuff...like ‘conversate’ for ‘conversation or conversed’ or ‘preventative’ for ‘preventive’ or ‘commentated’ for ‘commented’...and on and on and on.
Next thing I expect is all forms of the verb ‘be’ are “changed” to just the root -’be’.....it is the lazy solution to the least common ‘everyman speak’.
If you want to see modern language laziness taken to the absurd extreme, watch that dipsh!t Tom Hanks in “Cloud Atlas.”