Oh well

It didn’t seem true to me either but Wiktionary does claim it as true and cites their source. Wiktionary: Scientist

Natural philosopher was falling out of favour since they weren’t really philosophers. Man of science was being used as a replacement but, in this specific case, didnt apply. “Scientist” was suggested and people just figured it was shorter than “man of science” and more accurate than “natural philosopher”. It also followed other words like artist, economist, atheist.