Welcome new user,
The simple answer is
1) "yes" scientists are absolutely aware of precisely the difficulty you bring up. Google lots about "comving distance", for instance, to see this issue addressed
2) and YES in caps, you are totally 100% correct that the usual language used in such popular science explanations, is, nonsensical / a total simplification :)
But what can we do?
Note carefully that the phrase
"space is expanding"
(aka "the expanding universe" "cosmological inflation" etc etc) is basically - an utter, total mess.
Many scientists suggest we should never again say "space expanding" and instead talk about the ......... "metric expansion". (Unfortunately - absolutely nobody, including those who propose it, has a clue what that means.)
Note for example that in the article referenced here:
https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/223697/10319
the authors conclude that all the common phrases we hear in discussing this .. are total claptrap. :O
So just to repeat,
your broad point (1) yes, scientists are 1000% aware of this and deal with it all the time (read about "comoving distances") and your broad point (2) you are spectacularly correct, the language/meaning used is a shambles.
Merry Xmas!