My recollection is that these were called Molex connectors in the 1980s. Are DuPont connectors different in some way, or were the names used somewhat interchangeably?
If you want to sound like an informed person, don't use "molex connector" that way.
It's like asking for a Kleenex instead of a tissue. Or back in the day, when you needed to make a copy of something, using the Xerox machine was quite a common term, even though Xerox made more than one machine, and most machines probably weren't made by Xerox.
that'd be the case if Kleenex made hundreds of variations, and the variations had no cross-compatibility with one another.
People that want a 'molex connector' want, usually, an AMP style press-lock 4 pin connector... unless they don't -- they're looking for a molex MiniFit extension to reach their GPU... unless they don't -- they want a vintage Molex asymmetric 4 pin for an old legacy device.
'Molex' is more ambiguous, imo, than you give it credit for.
Every industry/company tends to refer to whatever common type they are using by the company name.
Unless the context is printers, in which case you obviously mean a 36-pin Centronics.
I accept your point, but I don't think you will look particularly informed if you ask for a "pre-SATA computer disk power connector", and the other person says "oh, a Molex connector?", and you say "yes but I don't know which one".
So... informed? To who? Professional engineers?
It could be a case where a brand name carries a historical association that isn't accurate any more.
I wouldn't normally associate it with a particular connector, although I understand it's a pretty commonly used that way in the PC community.