> The fact that you don't see the difference between copying an abstract idea like an algorithm compared to literal copying of the names
An algorithm can contain literal names and you're allowed to copy them. You need to understand that what you're allowed to copy or not is the second step after having established that the work under discussion is a fixed expression (and satisfies all other necessary conditions).
> necessary for the structure, sequence, and organization of the API belies your ignorance wrt to copyright.
SSO applies after it's established that a work is a copyrighted fixed expression -- it's the second step; it does not, and cannot, establish that things that are not works are. The SSO of a non-copyrightable thing, like an algorithm or a protocol is not protected.
> One involves no "this piece of the original is listed here in the reimplementation, verbatim" and the other does.
What you're allowed to copy or not of a copyrighted work is irrelevant to what you're allowed to copy, or not, of a non-copyrighted work. You are allowed to copy, verbatim, anything that's copyable from non-copyrighted works.
For example, if I tell you an original story at a bar, the story is not copyrighted. Therefore, you are clearly allowed to repeat it verbatim, write it down etc. It's not that copying verbatim, SSO, translations of anything is not allowed; it's that doing those things for copyrighted works might not be allowed. The action matters only after the work is determined to be copyrighted. Another example: distributing photos of copyrighted images might be an infringement. Your face, if you show it in public, isn't a copyrighted work. Do you think that "the SSO argument" states that the SSO of your face is protected?
> Do you understand SSO arguments?
Yeah, but clearly you don't. SSO, like translation, is one of the kinds of protected derivations of a copyrighted work. It is not used to define what is or isn't a work. Protocols are not copyrighted, and so their translation and SSO are not protected. Programs are copyrighted works, and so the argument goes that their SSO is protected.
Once more, two steps: first, is it a work that satisfies the necessary conditions for copyright (yes for programs, no for algorithms/protocols); second, if the first part holds, what kinds of copies and derivations are allowed (SSO, translation, verbatim copies of small parts etc)?
You don't need to concern yourself with SSO or verbatim copies until you've established that the work is copyrighted. If it's not -- like in the case of an algorithm or a protocol -- the argument is completely irrelevant.