Each of those statements I made suggests that "Marxist-Leninism" is not the same thing as "Marxism" outright. As in, they're not synonymous terms, contrary to the popular usage of the term "Marxist," (i.e.: noun; an adherent of Marxism).

That's not the same thing at all as claiming it isn't "Marxist," (i.e.: adj; deriving inspiration, origins, or ideological alignment from Marxism.)

The closest thing I said to implying what you claim I said was contrasting MLs with "actual Marxists," which yes, I admit was poor word choice. The meaning I was aiming for was closed to either "Marxist originalists," as in people who study Marx's writings and derive their theoretical outlooks from that rather than from Lenin or Trotsky; or more particularly "Marxists as a broader category," as in not limiting it to only one sub-school of thought.

Either way, my entire original point was that referring to "Marxist-Leninists" simply as "Marxists" is a misnomer because it conflates Leninism with Marxism, implies that all forms of Marxism are actually Leninism, and erases even the possibility of exploring other forms of Marxism as either intellectual possibilities, innovative theories, or novel iterations of praxis itself. It reduces the entire field of "Marxism" to one point, namely: Leninism.

Which is damaging, precisely because there's a very real equivalence between "Marxist-Leninism" and bolshevism. In effect, it says "if you're not a bolshevik, then you can't be a communist."

It's a form of gatekeeping when it happens on the left, and it's a caricaturization when it happens on the right, because when they use the term "Marxist" as a pejorative for the left as a whole, what they're saying is that we're all bolsheviks.

I personally would like to distinguish between myself and bolshevism without rejecting Marxism outright. I do that by rejecting Maxist-Leninism, while pointing to the distinction between it and Marxism.

You can still try to monopolize the entire field of Marxism across philosophical, sociological, political, and economic spheres. You can claim being a Leninist is a requirement for being a Marxist. I would still disagree with you, and honestly that approach isn't going to advance leftwing causes anywhere in the world.