Mike, I suppose it all means what you mean by "luthier". It is a word which has travelled long and gotten tired along the way IMHO.

I prefer to call a guitar maker a guitar maker, and a repairman a repairman, and I wouldn't let a violin maker (some of whom also call themselves luthiers) within a 100 yards of my guitar, but if by "luthier" you in fact mean professional guitar maker rather than full time repairman, then all I am saying is that you are narrowing your area of choice unnecessarily.

There are many repairmen who have never built a guitar but who are expert at set-up work and refretting.