I'm not entirely convinced by these articles.
While it's certainly possible that this particular game developed its association with Chanukah more recently, it does seem a bit of a stretch to claim that one prewar American rabbi, with whom the vast majority of frum Jewry is completely unfamiliar with, invented and printed a brand new origin story that so rapidly became the given explanation taught everywhere. This account about the sourcing of the accepted dreidel story is certainly more of a stretch than a group of children convincing Greek soldiers that a gathering of children was for play rather than for study, which for some reason the article writer deemed too implausible.
Moreover, even if the article's assertion is true and the association of the dreidel with Chanukah really is this recent, all this naysaying about the invented symbolisms associated with it after the fact (and the fact that we are so uncomfortable with it) is just a reflection of our narrow Hellenistic/rationalist perception of world events and history. In this view, everything must have one linear explanation, cause and effect. There is no meaning to the reality/event/practice beyond its initial physical impetus.
Perhaps the worldview we fought for can be found within this blurry dreidel origin story itself: If sincere jews have this well established minhag, it must be that G-d wills it, and if G-d wills it, it must have inherent layers of meaning. The meaning may be completely divorced from its linear historical origin story because G-d's plan for the world isn't tied to one linear explanation, rather world events are orchestrated as they are for a possible infinity if reasons.
