I agree with that observation. A computer can’t really be programed to understand the distributive property and if it could be; it’s probably simpler to just insert the extra parentheses.
Of course it could be. But it's entirely irrelevant to this problem.
The older TI calculator followed the "juxtaposition" theory. That means the times 2 outside the parentheses (without an explicit *) was considered a higher priority than any regular mult or div.
The newer TI corrected to follow the established rules and not this juxtaposition theory.
Distribution has nothing to do with it.