alt Hacker News> The invention of the "airplane" is just a simplified term for "controlled and sustained powered flight"
Maybe? But most people think of it as "invented the airplane," and the two terms have different connotations in common use. Likewise, the title here says "television," not "real-time capture, transmission, and display of moving images" -- and similarly, I think the terms have different connotations.
People who do not have a technical education tend to have a less precise definition of things. There's not a great deal of point to arguing semantics.
There were precursors to Edison's light bulb, and people use that to denigrate Edison's achievement. But the technical reality of the Edison bulb is his bulb was practical, and the precursors were just curiosities.