There isn't even a small level of alcohol that's safe:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31310-2And so even if a moderate level of alcohol might have therapeutic effects, any such effects would be completely negated by other damage caused to your organs. And with how common substance abuse is, the category of "moderate drinkers" probably hardly exists. You either consume little to nothing, or well past any therapeutic dose.
Alcohol causes hypertension, so what good could it really do to prevent heart disease?
That's what I was going to say. For many years we have been bombarded with articles that were actually paid advertisements for the alcohol industry, undercover, to say that x amount of beer or x amount of wine is healthy because so and so, as the OP mentions.
In the end, alcohol is toxic and, as you say, not healthy at all. At least if people want to drink alcohol they should be aware of it, and not be sold a lie. Even knowing that it is a toxic substance, alcohol consumption is already high enough in itself.