Of course, no one claimed that Finn, etc., were a figment of JM's imagination, just that the bulk of his 'translations' were.

If I may stray into current politics, I came across this quote from Johnson, which seems more a propos now than ever:
“There is no crime more infamous than
the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be
social beings no longer than they believe each other.
When speech is employed as the vehicle of falsehood,
every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit
his own cave, and seek prey only for himself.”