Please cut the FAA some slack. They are not that stupid. Actually at least to me they proved to be a quite educated, helpful and very polite bunch of people. Well nicer than some other aviation authorities I had the misfortune to deal with.
If you read the FAA Helicopter Flying Handbook in its latest version in chapter 11 page 9 you find this:
Settling With Power (Vortex Ring State)
Vortex ring state describes an aerodynamic condition in
which a helicopter may be in a vertical descent with 20
percent up to maximum power applied, and little or no climb
performance. The term “settling with power” comes from
the fact that the helicopter keeps settling even though full
engine power is applied.
The FAA sees Vortex Ring State as an aerodynamic condition and Settling with Power as the phenomenon the pilot will experience. A reasonable explanation, if you ask me. I could live with it (apparently the confusion is a result from a time the US Navy messed it up). The FAA is certainly aware of the mess about VRS and SWP in its own country and having read their stuff about it in several editions, there is a clear tendency to straighten things out. But they have to deal with a whole bunch of different types of pilots who raise their voices about everything all the time. Especially the old FI's do not read that book again they have read 30 or 40 years ago (at least nobody here did it). To keep the confusion to a minimum, the FAA has to do this slowly. One day, everybody will be on the same page.
Somebody should probably go and change the wikipedia article to be more precise.
If you want to read the whole chapter about it go
HERE
PS: What many of us will not like too much is the recovery part. Read it, it might annoy you.