I started out lambasting the British carriers for confusing their consumers by not following clearly defined internationally accepted standards for naming conventions.
It would be as if they marketed all their 802.11N products as 802.11G.
No, it wouldn't be like that at all.
802.11N and 802.11G are advertised as what they are, part of the 802.11 protocol.
Calling HSPA+ "4G" is not advertising what it is. HSPA is a 3G protocol and HSPA+ is an improvement upon that protocol. HSPA and HSPA+ are the same data protocol. For comparison, HSPA would be like 802.11G, while HSPA+ would be like 802.11N.
Literally, even in the definition of HSPA+:
HSPA+ enhances the widely used WCDMA (UMTS) based 3G networks with higher speeds for the end user that are comparable to the newer LTE networks.
HSPA+ is literally just faster 3G. That's all it is.
That's what the technology is. If the ITU wants to call HSPA+ "4G" they can if they want to, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still 3G.
Even modern day LTE-A, which is the LTE used around the world currently, isn't even 4G. the ITU actually had to change their own stance so that LTE and WiMax would "officially" be called 4G, since neither could reach the 1Gbit/s (125MB/s) download speed that was required. (LTE only has 300Mbits/s, HSPA+ 168Mbits/s)
If the FDA all the sudden decided to change the name of the banana to "moonfruit", does that change the fact that it's still a banana?
Also, seriously, calm down. It's a name. It's not like fires are going to start across the world and the seas will fill with blood or anything.