I believe it's an inaccurate description. As I said elsewhere, when someone says "I've been waiting for days" and it's actually been minutes, we don't say "day

I believe it's an inaccurate description. As I said elsewhere, when someone says "I've been waiting for days" and it's actually been minutes, we don't say "days sometimes means minutes". We say they were exaggerating for effect. It's a different use of the same meaning. I think it's the same for "literally". Hyperbolic use of the original meaning. If "literally" meant "figuratively" we would expect to see sentences that would be interpreted as literal but for the inclusion of "literally", and I don't think I have ever seen one.