I mean a lot of these people should just start off with some houseplants.

That's where I am! I have a lot of houseplants (on the order of about 100) and now that I own property with outdoor space I've been interested in getting into potted outdoor houseplants. My tiny backyard has a lot of perennials, but what I don't have are many trees or any extra ground space, so I'd love to have some small potted hardy trees, particularly given my love of the real deal (i.e. adult trees in nature).

Not really bonsai then, though. Burritos are not egg rolls.

Bonsai inspired teacup trees or something.

Ok we will call them penjing like the article suggests, but others will continue to refer to them as bonsai and I am not going to go out of my way to correct them.

I'm down with penjing!

Which honestly feels a bit silly to me, because the Chinese penjing community are also obsessed with the details of the craft - may be to a slightly less degree than their Japanese counterpart due to the Japan culture's tendency to formalize things. But I promise you penjing enthusiasts are just as likely as bonsai enthusiasts to object to stick-in-a-pot being called a penjing.

(eg of a penjing site full of guides and discussion about the type of plant, the soil, the pot etc: https://www.pjcn.org/ )

And just like the article says about Japanese and their attitude towards the "not bonsai" - outside of the enthusiast communities, most people don't care, and will enjoy their small-tree-like-plant and call it bonsai/penjing anyway.

So I don't see why one would object to calling a casual mini tree a bonsai but is comfortable calling it penjing. Either both are okay or neither is.

I agree with you. My mom is very into plants but she never calls her pots of mini trees penjing. But I guess there's the language aspect of the word usage as well: 'penjing' (literally pot of scenery) sounds very formal like written language, not very colloquial. It would sound like an advertising word as if from a production video or a market. Whereas the Japanese counterpart is regarded as an established high art/profession (which is common in Japanese society).

The article has already played out both sides of this argument in detail for us - do we really need to repeat it here?

They're both just a form of calzone

What’s a bonsai is the question you’re headed towards. But when people buy a small simply styled tree in a pot, what are they to call it if not a bonsai. It’s a muddle because 99% of what’s sold as a bonsai is bought by people who do not want to become “bonsai” hobbyists

I smell a "Robot or not" episode coming in.

I would assume Japanese people would call bonsai any plant in a recipient that has enough art to be enjoyable to watch. For instance I think moss is accepted, as long as it's artful and well groomed.

That would be Kusamono.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusamono_and_shitakusa