Why do you need to dilute the term? There is nothing wrong with your NAS running 3 apps that you press update once a year not being called "homelab" but just "a NAS"
Nobody is diluting anything. This person posted the setup they have in their home. It’s their homelab.
It’s not diluting any terms for them to call it that. Their setup is just as much a homelab as somebody else’s 48U rack.
It’s just a dick move, and against the rules of the site, to see somebody’s earnest post about their tech setup and post a shallow dismissal about how their setup isn’t deserving of your imagined barrier to entry.
The whole idea of homelab (regardless of size) is learning first.
He just have home server. It's okay to call it that
I'm happy for the OP and that it works for him. That said:
The equivalent of Joe Bloggs installing Linux onto an old laptop is neither curious nor interesting, let's not pretend it is because feelings.
It's also been on the front page for most of the day on its own merits. It's clear you don't like the article. The guidelines are clear that you're expected to either engage constructively or just move along.