It makes sense in photography where we don't really deal with or think about individual lens elements aside from people who repair their own, or when some new k

It makes sense in photography where we don't really deal with or think about individual lens elements aside from people who repair their own, or when some new kind of element appears. We also call the whole assembly glass sometimes, though some people think it's pretentious. It's more common in blogs/YouTube/etc than in actual practice where focal lengths and f-stops are usually the main language of lenses.