I used to play an MMOG called "Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates", and their servers were located in California. They used Pacific Time as their in-game clock and time zone. So they would call it "Pirate Time" and that easily fit into the mold of the "PT" abbreviation. It seemed perfect and foolproof to me.

However, the majority of the players on all the "oceans" (servers) converged on a different term for it. They called it "Game Time" or "GT" or "gt". I am unsure if this was a carry-over from common parlance in other games, or just something they felt more comfortable with using. I was not comfortable. People talking about "10:30 gt" was jarring and confusing to my neurospicy intellect. It surprised me, then annoyed me, then I had to mentally translate it back into "Pirate Time" and thus to "Pacific Time" as I was not in that time zone, and MST does not have a "constant offset" into Pacific Time.

So there was a case where the game admins prescribed, and adhered, to one standard term, and the players simply rejected it and supplied their own. So I do not know what "problem" was solved by that collective action, but mostly everyone seemed comfortable with it. It wasn't "wrong" or misleading per se because it was simply an invented acronym.

"EST" is wrong and it is not simply a preference to write the wrong timezone. If people like me, in perpetual MST, struggle to determine what offset is meant by "EST" then it's imprecise and misleading. We cannot merely say it's "descriptivist" and roll with it. Anyone who wants to avoid dealing with DST can simply write "ET" instead. Eastern Time. Easily interpreted, perennial, never wrong based on season or month.

But instead they've collectively insisted on co-opting an existing term and twisting it. Let's not be "descriptivist" in aiding and abetting misleading terms. Hopefully, if the U.S. completely bows out of Standard Time, something will change? I mean if we're permanently in DST, will corporations insist on sticking with their "EST" standards? That would be... bizarre.