I think that Citibank is having some technical issues as of late. I applied for the AA Plat only to get a instant denial then received an "You're approved" email about 12 hours later.
That coupled with issues logging in, Secure Message sent taking forever to get a reply. Something smells fishy.
Odd the agent told you that you would not receive credit, but then again he/she might not be aware of the loophole that I'm sure will get closed eventually. It's worth noting that the application page no longer says "world". So it is possible that Citibank is auto approving for the WE instead of converting a few months later.
I'd be interesting for anyone who's applied in 2016 what type of card they receive in the mail with the welcome letter. World Elite or World.