Actually, the example is part of the Accellera UVM Reference Guide, which we just include on Academy for convenience. You are apparently the first person to notice, since the problem persists through UVM1.2 and even into the reference implementation of 1800.2 (although not in the actual 1800.2 standard). I’ve notified the appropriate committee. Thanks for the heads up.
In the meantime, stick with using the component as the first argument.