Factorio EA is like Kerbal Space Program used to be: it's a completely viable and fun game, but not feature complete. They have a vision for what they want the release to be like, and they're making progress toward that.

I disagree that it's a way to shift responsibility. The devs are responsive and the game is very stable. I can't tell you the number of times I've watched a bit of an older let's play series and some minor complaint or wish has since been addressed.

Many games are like that, but not Factorio. So, it just comes down to semantics and what EA means, vs. what perhaps it should be.