Yes, all this is granted. The point is that it is a complex question, not a simple one. When people try to simplify it down to "it was a famine, and if you say differently you are desecrating the memories of dead people" they are guilty of over-simplification. If we had a sudden failure of one crop in the US today and a whole population starved while the wealthy remained well-fed and indeed got wealthier, history would not be kind enough to call it an example of famine.   It would be an example of the failure of a government to fulfill its obligations. So I agree that a crop failure was part of the story, and even that looked at in one way it could be seen as a famine. The point is there are other ways in which people look at it, and they are justified in doing so.