"I understand that to mean that a similar IRA distribution in 2021 does not provide the benefit that it did in 2020, namely the elimination of the 10% early withdrawal penalty."

That's not what it means.

It is not unusual for a payout to come the year after a declared disaster, such as, a storm hits in Dec, that is declared a disaster, it qualifies for hardship or disaster distribution, but the distribution isn't until a couple of months later, once people figure out what is the effect of the disaster and what are their needs and what won't FEMA cover.

But that isn't true for covid. To be Qualified, any distributions for covid had to happened no later than Dec 30, 2020. There is no "similar" covid distribution.

Either a distribution Qualifies or it does not. covid distributions do not exist as of Dec 31, 2020.