It's been a long time since I took accounting as an undergraduate—maybe not that long—but I remember that there were several different standards, actually. There was an international standard and there was an American standard. There was a bit of a tussle between the two on which one should reign supreme. Is it still the case that there are several definitions floating around?
I understand the benefit of the continuity of keeping a certain definition, but in today's day and age, to model today's spending expenditures, I think you also mentioned that it's maybe not the worst thing to update those definitions.