I feel the same and I think taking offense to people referring to it as such is kind of gatekeeping in a way.

I think on a technical note, in Japan, anime is just short for animation anyway. It's not actively trying to be it's own thing. They're literally calling out what it is: animation.

Cartoons are also animation. In my mind, whatever you call it, it's an animation. Retro Disney movies, people would commonly call an animation but not a cartoon in the similar way people take offense about calling anime a cartoon. Makes no sense to me. Then again, maybe that's just the engineer in me trying to apply logic to it all.

In any case, to me, they're all just animation. Different styles and target audience, yes, but just animation.