[soapbox]
The problem with everybody’s opinion of what is and isn’t a polish or glaze is that they are simultaneously all correct and they are all wrong.
The reason is that there are absolutely no standardized, universally accepted definitions for the terms.
Every individual and every company has there own practices and preferences and are free to do as they please. There is no wax police to intervene and drag you before the wax judge.
Whenever you buy a liter of wax from anybody you get the same amount. That’s because everybody, all over the world agrees on how much a liter is. A whole bunch of scientists from everywhere got together in Switzerland, discussed it, agreed on it, shook hands and went home to tell their fellow countrymen what a liter was. International treaties were signed and everybody’s happy.
When you buy a Compact Disk from somebody it plays in a compact disk player made by somebody else. That’s because one outfit, and one outfit only, decides what is and isn’t a Compact Disk. Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. of The Netherlands invented it (in cooperation with Sony) and wrote a great big red book that describes it (called The Red Book, strangely enough) in minute detail and if your product doesn’t meet it’s hundreds of pages of specifications you can’t call it a Compact Disk. (You may notice that a number of music disks sold these days don’t say “Compact Disk� or “CD� anywhere on the packaging. That’s because many record companies are including copy-protection features that don’t follow the standard. They’re close enough to be read by most players but they aren’t “real� CDs so they can’t call them CDs without incurring the wrath of Phillips’ legal department.)
You can plug a USB device into your computer because a bunch of computer companies got together, formed a consortium, and hashed out the details of how USB devices would all work.
In each of these cases there is some body, governmental, industrial or organizational that has the responsibility for defining the words’ meanings.
In the case of the detailing industry and the terms “polish� and “glaze� there is no governmental overseer, no trade organization, no industry consortium and no standardization of any kind. Anybody is free to use the terms any way they want.
Meguiar’s is free to call their products with no abrasives or protectants “polishes� just as Zaino is free to call their synthetic protectants (sealants) “polishes� and others can call their mildly abrasive products “polishes�. If you want to slap a label that says "polish" on a jar of peanut butter go ahead. there's nothing stopping you. Nobody is “correct� or “incorrect� in their use of terminology when there are no accepted standard definitions for the words.
It’s not likely to change anytime soon either. Manufacturers seem to be quite content confusing the hell out of consumers while consumers, as a whole, show little interest in harmonization.
[/soapbox]
PC.