Well pedantically the uninformed would be correct..
Like so much modem military kit the Merlin is a "system" - and its the "system" that' has broken down.
You can't tell the public that on one hand the Merlin is a complete packaged system, but then claim the Merlin is only an airframe when the system goes wrong..
Time for consistency in nomenclature - or even a completely new nomenclature to differentiate between "Merlin the system" and "Merlin the aircraft"