“Pedant” is just code for “someone who chooses to be willfully ignorant of context.” If you insist on a technical definition when you’re not actually in that technical context, you’ve already lost the debate.
Anyway, the reasons that kosher salt is popular in the US are: 1) it’s suffciently coarse to hold its own when salting is being used to draw out moisture or add texture to a dish; 2) it’s widely available; 3) it’s cheap; 4) it’s always made without iodine and anti-caking agents. This makes for a clean-tasting salt that’s easy to handle and has a lot of useful properties for cooking that just about everyone has access to.
