Thanks, Brian. You make good points.

Here's how I see it.

The point of an analogy is not necessarily to be accurate. Especially online, it’s often just there to get people’s attention. And as long as the analogy isn't too misleading, I think that's totally fine. Once you have someone's attention (which is the hardest part in online writing), you can further elaborate to clarify what exactly you mean. But if you don't have someone's attention, even the best analogy won’t do you any good :)

PS: I went all the way to getting a PhD and taught at a college myself. So it wasn't that bad 😅