You seem to be jumping around in terms of what position you're taking. Is times(a, b) function composition because a and b are functions, or is times(a, b) function composition because it's composition of the addition function, or is times(a, b) function composition because multiplication is a function? Those are very different assertions, with very different implications to the original discussion, and so far as I can tell you’ve made all three of them. Maybe they're all true, maybe one or two of them is true, maybe it's a matter of perspective which are true. But I don't think you're being clear or consistent in which assertion your position is based on.

And no matter what, there's still a difference between composing a with b, and composing b with itself a times, which is what I mean by the distinction between composition and iteration (sort of like the distinction between a brick and a brick wall).

At this point I feel we're going around in circles, so I'll bow out.