You're not wrong that the distinction isn't terribly important for this story, however that term absolutely has meaning in the world of fintech and places repor

You're not wrong that the distinction isn't terribly important for this story, however that term absolutely has meaning in the world of fintech and places reporting on financial news - near/soft real-time are very distinct from real-time. It's been 5 years since I've worked in that industry, but I still view the use of "real-time" the same way and can understand some people's issue with the term in this case.