Having read OD&D and AD&D 1st edition in the original English, I don't think bad translations would have increased the amount of misinterpretations to a meaningful degree.
Though with the level of quality of the 5th edition DMG, I would say that D&D is still a game that is taught primarily by oral tradition, if you include text conversations in that category. Public assumptions of how to play the game are much more impactful than what is written in the books.