This just answered my question regarding the quote from "Postfix: The Definitive Guide":

ENVELOPE ADDRESSES AND MESSAGE HEADERS A common source of confusion for email users is the fact that the To: address in email message headers has nothing to do with where a message is actually delivered. The envelope address controls message delivery. In practice, when you compose a message and provide your MUA with a To: address, your MUA uses that same address as the envelope destination address, but this is not required nor is it always the case. From the MTA’s point of view, message headers are part of the content of an email message. The delivery of a message is determined by the addresses specified during the SMTP conversation. These addresses are the envelope addresses , and they are the only thing that determine where messages go. See Section 2.2.8 later in the chapter for an explanation of the SMTP protocol.

Mailing lists and spam are common examples of when the envelope destination address differs from the To: address of the message headers.

Also an answer to this question.