Somewhat in between, more towards the former I guess?

I wouldn't say it's nonsense nor that it should be made fun of, I simply disagree on calling it a "choice". It's more like a D&D saving throw, and sometimes the DM just makes it mathematically impossible for you to pass it, but I concede that "choice" is less verbose than that.
I agree that you can change your psychological reaction to everything, and that it's not easy, but it's not, like, an API call to a well documented open-source library, and you don't necessarily have full control over what that change is.

The other interpretation is basically your opinion, but actively dismissing the fact that it's ~~never~~ not always effortless or painless - I've heard that here and there, by people I'm not really fond of.