Ok, so perhaps "issue" was poor word choice, however one might equally ask why you are getting so worked up about this "matter"?
Much like, I imagine, the OP I am recently qualified and looking to gain experience. A search through this forum will reveal that and a number of other facts.
After qualifying I have found work at a small operator who fly single pilot aircraft rather than spending money on a TR as I want to experience and would happily work in the realm of "hands-on" flying.
On occasion I have been fortunate enough to be taken on some company flights, all of them positioning and not operated as AOC flights, and to have been allowed to control the aircraft or otherwise contribute to that flight. I have never, in the sense of sitting looking out the window, just been along for the ride, but as you quite rightly point out (and which I have not contested nor claimed to the contrary) according to the law that's exactly what I was doing.
On each of those fights I have been shown things by more experienced pilots or experienced issues and seen them being resolved. I contributed to the planning of the flights, in fact usually I did it and the PIC checked it, and tried to take as much from the experience as possible. In short I tried and feel I suceeded in learning something.
Now, being newly qualified I wanted to check whether I could "claim" any of this experience by logging it as time and not simply SNY, and as I alluded to above, my instincts were correct and I cannot therefore no record of these flights exist in my logbook. I am not falsifying experience, I am not claiming something which did not happen and I am not trying to defraud anyone. I am low hours and want all the experience I can get; turns out I can't have those hours.
That is why this, to some of us, it is an issue, matter, quandary or query.