If it's clear that people expect 'apps' to be in the app store, how can you think "there's nothing wrong" with calling PWA's 'apps'?

OK, "there's nothing wrong with calling a PWA an 'app' in most contexts, unless the person listening to you is likely to try to search for the PWA in an app store".

Ask any random person where they would go to install an app and you'll stop belittling this problem.

I don't know why you wouldn't just call them "web apps". Why the P and why the acronym.

If you define a web app as ‘an app that is actually a website’, just call it a website.