Erlang is completely tied to its runtime. Making a distinction is not really important. The point is Erlang gives you the best parts of much more complex solutions in a simple easy to use package.

Agreed, it's kind of a pedantic/moot observation.

Thats even better! That way, you get to program with much saner assumptions in a more pleasant environment, rather than having to write code to smooth that over manually, or deal with configuration and operational hell to make it work at a deployment level.