> We should probably stop calling the thing that we call REST (...)

That solves no problem at all. We have Richardson maturity model that provides a crisp definition, and it's ignored. We have the concept of RESTful, which is also ignored. We have RESTless, to contrast with RESTful. Etc etc etc.

None of this discourages nitpickers. They are pedantic in one direction, and so lax in another direction.

Ultimately it's all about nitpicking.