To me a pull in the sense of the foundational human movements (push, pull, squat, hinge, carry) is every movement where you're leading with the elbow/pulling through the elbow.
To me the swing or deadlift is not a pull, because the elbow stays completely straight. There's no intent to move the object (KB or barbell) towards/into/behind your body by "using" the elbow.
KB cleans and snatches are mixed movements.
For the clean you hinge first. Once the hinge is completed and you're standing in the plank the KB floats from hip height to chest height. During that float you pull through your elbow to reel it in.***
For the snatch it's quite similar. You complete the hinge and the KB starts floating up. During that phase you slightly pull the KB towards head level (via a movement that's similar to the KB high pull) to get it into position for the "punch through". It's more guiding the KB than actually pulling. That's why I can accept the statement
@Nate quoted from the Easy reg Park article.
***see this clip to know that I mean. Stop the vid at 0:42, set the speed to 0.25 and watch his arm/elbow.
I get the overall confusion about the two terms and
@jca17 did a good job explaining where it comes from.