Clarification on Spot Rate Used in Money Market Hedge (Question 275)

I’m currently studying money market hedges and working through past questions. I came across Question 275, and I’m a bit confused about the spot rate used in the solution.

Question Recap:
A US company owes €3.5 million in 3 months.
The spot rate is quoted as: $1.96 – $2.00 per €1 (i.e. €1 costs $1.96 to buy / $2.00 to sell).
The task is to calculate the USD equivalent of the payment using a money market hedge.

Annual interest rates in the two locations are as follows:
Borrowing Deposit
US 8?% 3?%
Europe 5?% 1?%

Required:
What will be the equivalent US$ value of the payment using a money market hedge?

In the solution, they calculate the euro deposit needed today (€3,491,272) and then convert it into dollars at the $2.00 rate (the more expensive rate).

My Confusion:
I was taught that in a payment (import) hedge, the typical rule is:

You buy foreign currency (here: buy euros)
? Therefore, you should use the lower (left-hand) spot rate (i.e., $1.96), since you’re exchanging home currency (USD) to foreign (EUR).

But in this question, they use the right-hand rate ($2.00) — the more expensive one — to convert dollars into euros. This seems to go against the usual MMH template for import hedges.

Could you please clarify:

Why is the $2.00 rate used here instead of $1.96?

Is there an exception to the rule depending on how the spot rate is quoted?

Is it because this is from the USD point of view and the rate is quoted $/€, not €/USD?

Thank you very much for your help — I just want to make sure I fully understand the logic behind the answer.