We should stop using the word 'innovation' entirely to describe product improvements

I disagree with every premise this thread is heading toward. Everyone uses 'innovation' as a synonym for any feature release, which degrades the concept until it means nothing while simultaneously obscuring genuine breakthroughs from marketing noise that frames incrementalism as revolutionary.

"Product improvement" is already a term, so why do we need to ban "innovation"? If anything, what this thread needs is a tighter definition of innovation — distinguishing it from incremental optimization, re-packaging, and feature creep — rather than an outright retirement of the word. Innovation isn't the wrong word; it's been weaponized as a synonym for any change that can be marketed with a splash screen. We don't need to stop saying "innovation." We need to start being honest about when we're actually doing something new versus just shipping more buttons and calling it progress. The current conversation is a category error: attacking the vocabulary rather than addressing the reality of what most product teams are actually accomplishing.