I think it is a little more complicated than that.

Well - kinda. The point I was trying to make was, whatever the reason, the term "scripting language" is often used as a derogatory description. It's not a technical term with any sort of hard definition.

One a debate is framed around "scripting" vs "real/compiled" what you often have is really a debate about "bad" vs "good". Which, as you correctly point out, is often more social than technical.