What distinction are you making? I take your comment as pointing at the fact they they are not owners of the software when it’s done, but developing software for others still makes one a software developer, or no?
Edit: I think this causes internal confusion as well, like consultancies hear "software project" and assume their team can do it because they have "software" experience, and then you end up with these disasters like you hear about from Accenture and Deloitte where they spend 10's of millions of dollars building a website that doesn't work. The parallel language in a academic, SV type tech, and tech consulting is actually a source of a lot of confusion.