I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I didn't mean that "inheritance v. not-inheritance" is the same as "poe-tay-toe v. poe-tah-toe". Rather, I mean that "How can we boil a (perceived) necessity for inheritance down to its essentials, in the form of underlying problems it's meant to solve?" is "poe-tay-toe", while "What are the problems we might solve with inheritance, and do we need inheritance or something else entirely to solve them in this case?" is "poe-tah-toe". In other words, I'm referring to different means of phrasing the question as being nearly equivalent (we're talking about the same thing in different languages). The refactor of my question is a better approach to explicitly describing the intent of the question, but it ultimately amounts to roughly the same question, as far as I can see.

On the other hand, I can't say I'm unhappy I failed to be clearer about my "poe-tay-toe versus poe-tah-toe" statement, because it prompted to you to say a bunch of stuff that helps me think more clearly about the problem at hand. I'd never really encountered lucid explanations of the traits/roles approach before my OP here, and between you and others I've received some good indications about how to approach figuring out what it's all about. Thus, thanks.