They are all feral by definition in the new world (although I’ve never read about your link before!)

Legislative BS that requires public opinion often refers to them as wild (because it plays to romanticizing) or they are sometimes labeled wild just to categorize how they will be treated by land and animal controllers (so they are considered “natural” in some areas). Before like the 70s, they were treated as pests and killed, but people thought they were cool and pretty, so it had to stop.

Arizona had always had a shitty time because the horse populations destroy the environment, but when parks people tried to thin or remove them, people complained because horses are pretty.