Ah, you have a slightly different definition of trash-for-benefit from me. (Although the only cards that come into my categorization and not yours are, I think, Transmute and Counterfeit.)
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=17368.0
Just, out of curiosity, why does everything has to have some kind of special name?
I would think, that the majority would understand, if someone says "it's a
village (variant)" "it's a
remodel (variant)", while adding "but it does this or that in a different way" if it is necessary for the context.
If the term "
village variant" is too narrow (leaving too many variants out) then you will, more or less, happen to have for every dominion card an own term, which adds no benefit. In the contrary: calling the actual card village a
splitter just adds more complexity.
i can say village is a
village and so is port. but i don't have to learn, what a
splitter is.
i even think, that if i use "
village" or made-up stuff like "
action gainer" or "
card-shaped stuffy which lets me do more stuff in my action phase" - the majority will understand.
if, in the context, it is important to differentiate between the card "village" and "throne room", someone will call it "
throny" "
throne room variant" etc. pp
a little bit like gernes of music: people may understand the difference between pop, rock, metal etc. pp
but the fewest can know the correct difference between thrash metal and speed metal - its easier to just call the band Metallica or Aerosmith or whatever ... with that: knowing what a
splitter is, is just interesting for people, deep enough in the knowing about dominion, which also tends to know the fine and subtle differences between village or fishing village or throne room or summon ... (list exemplary but not limited to these 4)
again - just out of curiosity. I am reading every second day in this forum more or less all the new posts - but these "how do you call a village" topics always keep me puzzled and never have gained me any insights ... (more than reading that f.i. expand is like the bigger brother of remodel, but the rest is quite similar and with that, the cards behave similar, depending of the kingdom...)
on the other side, i like smugglers - what do i know?! :-D