Bruce Janson wrote:
I had assumed that those who referred to their in-orbit experiments
as being in "microgravity" did so because they were being careful to
acknowledge that despite their free-fall relative to Earth their
experiments might still feel the (micro) gravitational attractions
of other objects such as the surrounding spacecraft and nearby astronauts.

As opposed to saying "zero-gravity". Yes.
The debate is on the common usage of the term "microgravity", as to
whether it is being used correctly given that at LEO distances, Earth's
gravity is still quite strong.