Your point, Lighter, may well be the one I've consistently made here over the years, that English is wot people say and not wot the grammar (etc.) police like to dictate. One might feel that it's a shame when nuance is lost, as with unique, literally, disinterested, alternative and the like. Even worse when pretentiousness is allowed to creep in, things like prior to, on a daily basis and the dreaded albeit. It can feel like we're kowtowing to ignorance by accepting the "misuses," but language belongs to the people, not to professors in ivory towers. It's about evolution, not dumbing down, and the bottom line is that language is all about communicating.

But none of that means that we can't have peeves. And I'm peeved when allegedly educated scientific types such as meteorologists don't know that the solstice is a moment in time, not a day.