Classes vs. Data Structures

Thinking about client-server architecture (for example, a database) can clarify things.

Encapsulation means you never have the canonical data. The server is the system of record. You can get data back in response to queries, perhaps even a full data dump, but it's a snapshot. You can also send commands to mutate data on the server. Typical applications aren't allowed to do a complete replacement (restoring from backup).

On the other hand, data is better thought of as what's going over the network. Messages consist of data. Encapsulation is almost meaningless; if you want to keep something private from the receiver, don't include it in the message in the first place (or use encryption, maybe). Anyone reading the data has to be able to understand the format, or at least, ignore what they don't understand.

In the degenerate case where the caller and implementation live within the same process, the same types often get used both for message transfer (in function arguments and return values) and storage. There is widespread "cheating" for performance reasons, and it can get confusing. For a transient process, it might not make sense to think in these terms at all. (Traditional Smalltalk used persistent images and client-server style encapsulation makes somewhat more sense there.)

You can also "cheat" by using the same schema for data transfer and storage, or having a trivial mapping between them. This can introduce unnecessary coupling, but there are systems where it works. (Consider that you can make a full clone of a git repo and it doesn't encapsulate any data.)

This is a violation of OOP. Instead, consider methods that produce and consume a serialized representation of the data instead.

Things like Java serialization and Python pickle attempt to do what you say and are considered failures (or at least security risks) because they allow a third party to act on object implementation internals.

Security aside, a denormalized representation of data could be different than the implementation specific representation that's encapsulated inside an object.

Whenever I hear "Socratic dialog", I reach for my revolver. Is there any other form of teaching so irritating and patronising? You might have a brilliant store of insight to impart, but if you insist on trying to do so via a twee, affected and unbelievable conversation with a Mary Sue wise professor, I'm going to write you off as insufferable before the fawning moron you have as proxy for your audience utters their first "Oh, wow! So you mean that straw-man you just put in my mouth isn't true?"

I completely understand and almost always share your reaction. Socratic CAN be done well - The novel Starship Troopers is actually like that...the arguments may not be your first pick, but you consider them all reasonable, and then you discover you're supporting fascism! It requires you to back up and find where you made a false connection.

Unfortunately, the most common usage is at best ineffective, for as you say, they will dictate some logical jump I don't agree with, so when they disprove it in favor of their point I remain unconvinced as my own argument hasn't been addressed at all.

At worst, it's infuriating.

The only thing more annoying is when people ape Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby and you have to follow the adventures of some tedious otter as it meets the rabbit people who ultimately explain pointers in a way which takes a thousand too many words.