Now that you’ve spelled out your position more, I definitely disagree. But, FWIW, I don’t agree that a car mechanic that stops working as such stops being a mechanic. I’m not saying my position is entirely defensible here, but I think there is something like a permanent label when you go through the training, become an expert, work and contribute, etc. Obviously, you can take this too far. I put myself through college waiting tables, but I’m not a waiter anymore. I bartended in grad school, but I’m not a bartender. But “scientist” is more like a vocation, an orientation, a way of thinking about the world, and I don’t think that goes away just because you don’t author primary articles any more. I don’t know, I probably can’t fully defend that, but it’s how I prefer to use the term.