The original use 'despite sounding', the gerund form of the verb 'sound', which implies having the appearance rather than actually being, which makes it less strong that 'be'.
The phrase is not wrong- Google records 173,000 examples of it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...o+the+contrary
The fact that a word may be unnecessary or not add much doesn't make it incorrect.
