The concepts in this lecture are by no means easy to get across. The more ways you can come at the concept the sooner people will begin to grasp the ideas. May I suggest so other analogies that may be useful.
For the technical types you could describe how in object mode the initial data is written to a file. Then a list of the transforms you make are kept in a separate list. When you apply the transform, the two files are combined to give a single mesh. In edit mode the mesh data is modified as you go.
For those used to using Blender perhaps you could use the analogy that transforms in object mode are like modifiers that are not yet applied. They keep stacking up until they are manually applied. Whereas transforms in edit mode are more like applying modifiers as each one is created.
For people like me, who like cooking, transforms in object mode are like gathering the ingredients for a cake and putting them on the kitchen bench. (This is the primitive mesh) Then you create a list of instructions on how to combine the ingredients, a recipe. (These are the unapplied transforms) When you bake the cake it is in effect applying the transforms to the base mesh.