Yeah that could be true. But how do you know it is RAI? Is this your opinion or from one of the authors?
I'm not seeing where you are confused:
"Every character has a Condition Monitor that tells the player how much Physical and Stun damage they can take before falling unconscious."
That passage is fairly clearly stating that the calculated number of boxes are how much Physical or Stun damage a character can take before being rendered unconscious. In plain terms, if you have taken enough damage to fill up either Condition Monitor, you are unconscious. That's what that sentence means, that section of the book isn't fluff, or allegory, it is character creation. And all of the other passages that people have mentioned simply support that.
For example - there is no rule how long you stay unconscious. But if you just interpret the writings in the healing section, it would mean, you are unconscious for one hour. Thats a little ridicolous...
I'm not sure what you find ridiculous, being rendered unconscious for an hour (or more, since you can fail to heal some stun damage on that first try) seems fairly reasonable.
If you think that is too short, I point out that like I said, there isn't a guarantee you automatically wake up in an hour. And I also feel it is important to note that if the Physical damage track is full, you don't wake up until you have at least one open damage box there as well. That means all overflow, plus one healed.
If that is too long for you, there are a few people that have suggested some homebrew tweaks to make waking up not so standard. Including dividing the hour by how many hits you got and healing one box every X minutes (so it's a gradual heal over time instead of 1 hour passesand suddenly 4 boxes are healed!).
Also, there are several things that can wake someone up early, such as applying First Aid, stim patches, or the Awaken spell (SG). These things also let you wake up early (albeit only temporarily), but with a full Stun damage track we're talking seriously concussed runners. I don't expectthem to always be walking away on their own right away.