Breakfast: There is a marked difference between websites of today and websites of a decade ago, not only in terms of technology and design but also audience interaction (e.g., read/write versus read-only). It is simply a way of acknowledging that change.
While there certainly is a difference between many professional websites today and those of 10-15 years ago, the change has been of such a gradual and piecemeal nature that there is simply nothing specific or distinct for any term attempting to describe the change to capture. "Web 2.0" is basically just taking a snapshot of the current state of web development, then pretending that ti's something that actually needs its own special title. It's pointless and silly.
Breakfast: I don't understand why that's so objectionable to some people. I imagine they are the same people who objected to the term "Ajax", which of course is now pervasive (like "Web 2.0"). Just because something is a buzzword doesn't mean it's meaningless--"Java" was a buzzword for years in management circles back in the '90s.
It's not that it's objectionable, it's simply pointless. The purpose of language is to communicate concepts, so if a term has no clear concept behind it there's little point to even having it around. Buzzwords go a step further, as their purpose is to use this lack of a concept behind them to create excitement without actually having to put forth what people should be excited about. This is all fine if this kind of deception is one's goal, but when people then start throwing around the buzzword as if it actually means something then it just gets rather pathetic. As for your last little bit of mental contortions, while Ajax and Java can be buzzwords in the context of marketing/PHB types using them while having no idea what they actually describe, they also describe fairly specific concepts (although Ajax comes close to being an edge case). So while a term can be both a buzzword and a legitimate description of something depending on context, this is not the case with "Web 2.0" as there still is no clear concept behind it.
This is getting a bit dull and pointless, though (and I say that as someone who can be incredibly pedantic), so there's a good chance I won't be responding further unless something particularly novel or interesting is put forth.