I agree. Back in the day I often installed custom ROMs on my Android phones and there was a distinction between needing to use recovery mode or losing your data vs "bricking", literally meaning that you turned your phone into a brick.
There were some "unbricking" guides but those usually required hardware voodoo, soldering, etc., things that most people couldn't do.
Now it's a clickbait term that has lost its original meaning of "you now own an expensive paper weight".
I remember the term being used at least as far back as the mid-80's. If you screwed up adding a second SID chip to your Commodore 64, the guides warned you about the potential for "bricking" the computer. Usually through static discharge.
There were some "unbricking" guides but those usually required hardware voodoo, soldering, etc., things that most people couldn't do.
Now it's a clickbait term that has lost its original meaning of "you now own an expensive paper weight".