it's meaningful to say, at some level of abstraction, that address 2 contains 42 indirectly.

No. Given

$bar = 42;
$foo = \$bar;
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one might say "foo is 42" in some contexts. But if you remove the abstraction and start talking of addresses, the statement becomes false. There isn't a 42 at address 2.

3 is the ________ of $2