I think regardless of the target audience, the onus is on the author to make it clear that errors like this are because of flawed character POV instead of research fail. For example, if he'd gotten the "grandfather" right, and clarified the distance to a desert location, and used a Turkish name for the guy, it'd be easier to trust that any other mistakes were on purpose. But when the story is riddled with mistakes that have nothing to do with a character's POV the trust isn't there and it's not the reader's fault for not getting it.