Reifying labels

Optimizing a thing that should not exist, is possibly the number one engineering mistake of a smart engineer, per Elon Musk.  https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw?t=1047

Reifying labels is along similar lines. They should not - rather, do not - exist as the things they represent, but too often they can be treated or described ("optimized") as though they do exist.

One example is "eternal sonship" of Jesus. How does this differ from the view that  sonship of Jesus was not eternal, rather sonship began when Jesus was born? It claims Jesus was a son before he was born.

Well, consider the alternative view, that Jesus did indeed exist before he was born, but he was not a son before he was born; sonship was planned before he was born, but not actually implemented before he was born.

This view differs from the eternal sonship view in a way that seems to exist (as a difference) as only a matter of semantics. It seems both views agree on what actually happened, but differ in the label ascribed to it.

The reality is the reality, not the label. The label is the label, merely, and not the reality.

As Shakespeare put it, What's in a name? A rose called by any other name would smell as sweet.

The only significant difference between the two views described above lies in the labels, not in the reality.

Yet this difference is treated as a real difference, not merely a difference in which label is ascribed.

The difference in labels is treated as a difference of reality; in other words, labels are being reified.