I think the terms are very overused.
I will sometimes loosely refer to myself as a bottom, but really I don't think the term applies to me that well.

I still see bottom and top to refer to penetration because like that's where it came from. From cis gay male spaces where it was helpful to know if someone takes it up the butt or gives it.

But nowadays many people said it's about being dominant or submissive (or at least use the word in that way) but on one hand that equates penetrating somebody to being dominant which is also sexist in a way and also, power bottoms exist, which are just a dominant bottoms.
Some say it's about giving or receiving pleasure (I hear this more in cis sapphic spaces) but to be honest I don't get that. Like sometimes I see what people mean but for example if someone sits on my face then who's receiving?
Like in general if I'm eating someone out, that obviously gives me pleasure too otherwise i wouldn't do it, so we're both receiving in my mind.

I think it would make more sense to talk about physical stimulation rather than giving/ receiving pleasure, because that's typically what they mean. Like if I eat you out you're the one being stimulated not me, same for using straps. Though it get's complicated again if the strap is double sided because then both are receiving again.

Also side note, this is also something that annoyed me in discussions around the word pillow princess (someone who only "receives" but doesn't "give" during sex). On tiktok there were some straight women using the term and of course lesbians called that out.
What I thought was dumb was some of the reasoning I saw though, saying they can't use the term because if a man penetrates them they are still giving him pleasure too because he's using a dick and not a strap. And aside that this is really trans exclusionary and also not all sex is penetration, there are cishet couples who don't do that type of sex, it's also annoying because again it uses the word pleasure in general instead of more the physical stimulation they actually mean.
I just don't like this way of talking because it implies topping isn't pleasurable unless you have a dick or something. Like you're only giving your partner pleasure during penetration if they are doing it with a penis.
In general I think it's silly to come up with restricting definitions for words like this, see my sex and gender language essay for more on that.

I think they should just say it's a lesbian term so don't use it. Why try to make a bigger discussion around it. In the same way we say a femme isn't just a feminine woman but a type of lesbian, we can say a pillow princess isn't just a woman who doesn't "give" during sex but a type of lesbian.
The discussion isn't "no you're not allowed to relate to the term", the discussion should be "stop appropriating queer language and culture".

And this is mainly my problem with the terms. I'm not saying they are meaningless or never helpful. Especially in more BDSM and kink dynamics they really make sense. Like if one person wants to be tied up and the other is doing the tying up, then top and bottom make sense.
My issue is people are using these words as if they're the only words to describe your sex life and then create this weird binary again of what you're into and what sex is and can look like.
I'm annoyed how often people use the words top and bottom and ignore the nuances of sex.