Smart contracts are still contracts, just a different kind than the typical legal contracts. "Contract" has been used to describe API interfaces. Words can have more than one meaning. "Contract" is also a verb, with multiple meanings.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_by_contract

I interpret "contract" like a contract between two software components. e.g. This is the schema of what our endpoint returns. You can work off of that.

You don't get to a multi billion scam, sorry, valuation, by calling them "scripts". The naming was very deliberate

Guess smart scripts just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way.

legally binding scripts