No matter what we decide to do, there is no way to impose a specific set of
terminology on physicists, let alone chemists and biologists. The only
thing we can do is to try to communicate to students a fairly rational view.
We don't have a prescriptive language academy as the French do. Despite
that the French still do not follow the orders from above.
So there is no sense getting upset about some variant terminology as long as
it is not too far from the mark. It is fun to argue about it! And our
discussions have very little effect on the larger community who is oblivious
of them.
However, it would be good to get the outrageous mistakes out of the
textbooks in regards to this terminology. While the texts are very poor at
teaching students, they are used as a resource by teachers and the teachers
often slavishly follow them. When the latter is done science ends up being
a hash.
It is sort of like dancing. One can accept some mistakes as long as the
person does not go in a totally wrong direction and mess up everyone. So
whether they do a proper hay, or just a circle is not disastrous.