I've known quite a few people who had very responsible day-to-day jobs conducting scientific testing who didn't have PhDs. I'm not sure I would exclude them from the category of "scientists".

Is science only science if it is aimed towards publishable research (which is clearly the academic view)?

Scientists communicate and leave archive quality research by way of publications. Anyone can "do" science, but I think it is a bit unfair to arbitrarily level-up smart people to the same level as those that go through years of training?

The lab techs that do scientific testing under the direction of a PI, they do science, right? Does that mean we need to relabel their badges to Scientist?

That just sounds like a debate about status - which I appreciate is very important inside academia but far less so outside.

I'm pretty sure it implies the use of the scientific method.

That's the old economy definition, anyway.