You're absolutely right, which is exactly why it's just a marketing term now (imo). There's amazing games that stay in early access for years and years with near monthly content updates, but at the same time, some early access games are complete garbage and the devs never intend to complete the game. They leave it as ea to sell copies to people who hope it will one day get better.... But never does.

Sometimes it's obvious it's abandonware that hasn't had an update in two years, but sometimes not so obvious.