I disagree that "it simply means installing".

Because when you install software that isn't from the app store, it's unvetted and untrusted.

There is a whole different structure of trust when you download and install an app from your provider's app store.

No, it's not perfect. No, it won't prevent malware or scams. But there is trust, and there is a vetting process, and there are automatic updates and in-app purchases and the other perks that you get with an integrated app store.

Sideloading, or "simply installing" from an APK, is a different procedure that involves mostly disabling the trust and certification features that your app store was providing. I have never needed to do this for any app on any Android device, and I've owned them since KitKat.

In fact, I will probably enable S-mode on my next Windows machine, because it's that easy to just avoid 3rd party apps and crapware.

So I don't know why people want to muddy the waters. You literally want to stamp out a differentiating term "because it's scary". Is that not censorship? Are you opposing freedom of speech now? Don't users and vendors have a right to call a thing what it is, or use different terms for different procedures?

It seems absolutely nuts to try and censor this word, because y'all believe it was foisted on you by "lawmakers". That's nuts.

The inconvenient fact that bursts this bubble is that installing already is the default term, and it's the emergence of "side loading" which is the anachronistic attempt to redefine the term.

The idea that a precondition for something to count is installing is that it's vetted by a big company is the abberation, and the notion that it's trustworthy is belied by the avalanche of unsafe and privacy violating apps that find their way into the store. F-Droid apps are actually more carefully vetted than Play Store apps, so there goes the trust rationale.

You're the one muddying the waters.

You're infantilising the users. It's untrusted by Google, but it's trusted by myself. I actually trust the Termux and Kodi devs way more than Google, yet they Google has been blocking their updates.

Note that the term sideloading is exclusively used by mobile OSes. On Windows MacOS and Linux you can install anything.