I think iteration and recursion can be defined perfectly well.
If people unconsciously create a more complex cycle, that might even be decomposable into distict smaller cycles, then thats still a perfectly fine recursion.
A program can apply both, recursion and iteration, together to solve a problem. Maybe the problem in the conversation is that it's context is implicit and inconsistent.
A recursive solution can always be written as an iterative one. Recursion is just a treat given by the language. There could be a language where any type of recursion on the language-function level is forbidden, but I doubt it would be terribly successful.
If people unconsciously create a more complex cycle, that might even be decomposable into distict smaller cycles, then thats still a perfectly fine recursion.
A program can apply both, recursion and iteration, together to solve a problem. Maybe the problem in the conversation is that it's context is implicit and inconsistent.
A recursive solution can always be written as an iterative one. Recursion is just a treat given by the language. There could be a language where any type of recursion on the language-function level is forbidden, but I doubt it would be terribly successful.