But NAT *requires* stateful inspection; No, NAT does not require this. In the context of this discussion it does.
Port NAT mapping one IP to many does, but there are other kinds of NAT. This is exactly the NAT that is being spoken of though.
this lack of precision can lead to nasty results when clueless middle managers demand things they don't understand (which is, after all, the way of clueless middle managers.) the technically minded of us can at least not aggravate the situation by being sloppy with our use of language. I find it doubtful that clueless middle manager types read NANOG but your concerns are obviously valid- who knows what someone is going to stumble upon when reading the archives.
I suspect everyone in this thread is completely aware of the differences however. -Don