It's two different things being argued about: the legal term "hacking" vs the every day language term, which I believe implies something more specific than "unauthorized access", something where technical or social skills were used to gain that access.

That's the parallel I was trying to draw by mentioning the word "hotwiring" instead of "stealing". It would be like if the legal term for stealing a car was "hotwiring".

That said, I did see that the OP of this tangent is actually trying to argue the "this isn't illegal" angle rather than the difference between legal terms and broader language terms.

I agree this falls under the legal definition of hacking, but I also agree with those basically saying that this falls outside of the way they think the term should be used. It waters down its meaning.