Hmmm... I didn't word the rule very well.

Of course the operand (variable, constant, function result) is not actually converted - the value of the operand which is on the internal processing stack is converted.

It'd be a nasty surprise if your variables' type was converted because it was on the right hand side of an expression [Eek!]

The rule is more properly:
In any binary expression the value of the operand on the right is converted to the same type as the operand on the left

There is probably a better way of putting it though.