Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for confirming what I said. I know I won't convince you one way or the other. I've seen statements eerily similar to yours before, that I feel that it might be a regurgitation from some article or book somewhere. Note the use of dehumanising terms, literally calling customers animals and 'cannon fodder'. This is what this (part of the) industry thinks of the people that play their games, cattle.
You have to call cohorts something. I know a gaming company that went very publicly out of their way to refer to the cohorts as Big Spenders, Hobbyists, etc. It didn't save their company. What you name your buckets doesn't matter. SaaS companies call customers Users, talks about Activating and Retaining them, put them in Buckets. If this is your bar for dehumanizing then this must be a very frustrating website for yo…
Horrible behaviour is not acceptable because other companies do it. What kind of argument is that?
Calling customers a User, is calling them a human being with a certain behaviour attached (using your app/service).
Naming your customers animals is a reflection of attitudes towards these customers. A hostile attitude I have tackled multiple times and every time I have called out, walked out, or changed the company. Its hard, not for everyone and I cant recommend it. I am just too aware of the tragic social impact of these tactics, and I have to try and not make the world a worse place.