A compiler that translates to another language used to be called a translator.
All compilers covert programs in one language (say C) into another, (say assembler or machine code), and they are called compilers. The whole transpiler thing is a bit bogus, but a C compiler has never IME been called a translator.
I think that the only benefit of "compiling to C" was reusing existing compilers, not tooling around it. Also, debugging that code is a nightmare unless you are intimate with transpiler internals.