Come on, now you're taking semantic quibbling to farcical levels. Yes it is true that a thermostat is not a timer, nobody claimed that. What it (in it simplest form) does is turn on the burner until the set temperature has been reached.

My point was, for any reasonable, non-autistic reader, it was perfectly clear that the GP knows how a thermostat works and that his point was that many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, or at least whatever is output by that burner/installation (be it water or air). Now I don't have an opinion on that matter, but I'm annoyed by your littering of the conversation over a slight sloppiness in expression in a context that doesn't call for the level of correctness you, from your high horse, are calling for.