So, I was playing Morrowind(as usual), and came across the lovely restoration skillbook featuring Yakin Bael.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/morrowind-four-suitors-benitah
I was amused until I came upon this part:



At that point, I got intrigued, and remembered that bit about CHIM and zero-summing that any true TES lore-buff must know.
The above part seemed awfully similar to the process by which one zero-sums , and I now suspect MK may have had a hand in writing the fortify intelligence part.
Am I the only one who seems to find this snippet odd?

It's the type of thing you don't need to think about too much. It's a popular real-world story that was just given that bit of TES flare. It's meant to be ridiculous. It just so happens it has the ring of truth in the Elder Scrolls universe. I don't think the real-world writer OR the in-game writer gave it too much thought.

Don't read too much into it.

I suppose so, though with MK's texts one may never know - he can interlace texts which were written years apart and not all thought of at the same time or written by the same RL authors to create various concepts.
But it may also simply be a ridiculous Dunmer version of a bedtime story,

Nothing to indicate MK wrote it, and it doesn't really seem like his style. Just choose the simplest answer for now, it's a silly story.