Yup, I was initially very confused at the idea, but then I realized what they were talking about and was like oh that is way different than what most people would assume it to be

Yeah the article seems misleading on this point. A retro-GEO orbit is silly, but what it actually says is “orbital informant satellite in retro-GEO.” This makes a huge difference as the informant satellite would be just outside of GEO and would just fly close to the actual GEO instead of in it. That way it could take a peeksie at the stuff in GEO and do a more rapid check on the things in it.