...as per the abvove, by calling one implementation "true" you are perforce implying that the other is "false", and once you start discussing in terms like that, what's the use of having any "debate" in the first place?

Real garbage collection algorithms get at anything that is garbage - including circular references. Reference counting does not detect self-referential garbage. It therefore is incomplete.

Therefore saying that reference counting is not true GC is not meant as a pejorative, it is descriptive. As a GC algorithm, reference counting is incomplete and has unfixable serious bugs. Of course it does things that real GC algorithms cannot do. Perhaps you don't want real GC? After all many complex systems haven't felt it necessary...

Cheers,
Ben