[smutticus]

Having read "The Computer and the Brain" by von Neumann. I would argue some key aspects of the von Neuman architecture are a computer's ability to store a program in memory, and have it fetched to run on the CPU. Another important aspect is a program counter(PC), and IO devices attached to the CPU via a bus.

The concepts that I would categorize as the von Neumann architecture are incredibly basic. Equating his plan for computer design with a difference between storing program/data vs. just program misses the mark. Von Neumann wasn't at all concerned with this difference.

Take this quote from "The Computer and the Brain": "Large digital machines are made up of 'active' organs and of organs serving memory functions-I will include among the latter the 'input' and 'output' organs.."

You can see how basic his thinking is by today's standards, and why Dijkstra later criticized him, and other American computer scientists for anthropomorphizing machines. He talks about 'an organ serving a memory function', he doesn't even talk about main memory because that word isn't in use yet.

You're interpreting von Neumann from a modern context. You don't understand just how basic and fundamental his ideas were.