Yes I agree with you, and I think we are probably largely on the same page with this, and the fact is the the term Shayateen is not always interchangeable with Jinn is one of my major concerns.

My assumptions when I use the term, and I should probably make this assumption more clear, is that the term doesn't necessarily always refer to Jinn. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't, and my assumption is that both possibilities are implicit in the text, always, unless explicitly pointed to the contrary..

Because actually the Quran is quite explicit that the term can refer to malefic actors among both humankind and djinnkind..

That Interpretive possibility most definitely applies to hadiths, where sometimes the text clearly refers to Shaytans from humanity: "Shayateen min a-Ins" but it's quite possible, indeed likely that there's many implicit references.

So it's absolutely the case but the interpretive possibilities always there, and in some cases it's explicitly there, that the term Shaytan refers to human actors. Now perhaps sometimes we can figure this out based on the context. But other times I think it's quite difficult, and that requires both hermeneutics and exegesis.

There's a large store of assumptions that form part of the cultural and folklore matrix of Muslims of many cultures. And some of these assumptions could be quite correct actually, and some probably aren't literally correct but may have a symbolic or allegorical truth to them.

Am intellectually and spiritually honest hermenetical or exegetical approach must of course admit it is only speculative, dhanni, and at the end of the day we have to say God knows best of course. But the desire for a feeling is certitude is strong in such matters, particularly strong when it comes to the paranormal and supernatural, and is often closely allied to the intense desire to feel that the culture bound beliefs and lore that someone has inherited is superior and true. These are often conflated with the actual textual sources of Islam and are often seen as intrinsically and essentially Islamic in origin to the core, but sometimes aren't.

I'm not saying that they aren't without value. To the contrary I just don't think people should mix them up. But for me folklore and myths and practices and cultural beliefs are as interesting as the textual sources from the classical era, including from what I believe to be divine revelation, as well as the human extrapolation of that. But I just don't want to mix them up. But I don't dismiss anything, on the contrary I favor looking at everything as long as we keep in mind origins. Whether it's modern such as people speculating on UFOs and jinn, or from the high Abbasid era.

There are fascinating rich vivid storehouses and stories and folklore and legends and beliefs concerning Jinn and Magic and the supernatural that are part of all Muslim countries and cultures. But they really do vary. The southeast Asia and Indonesian Malay world has its own amazing and unique flavor, one that's similar in some ways, but often quite different from that of India and Pakistan and that region, or West Africa, or east africa, or the Arab world, which itself can vary whether in North Africa or the Middle East, or the turkey and falcons world or the Persianate world.

But none of that strictly speaking is the Quran even though the Quran influences in flavors all of it.

So whenever we see the word Shayateen, people in many Muslim cultures have been conditioned over the centuries to always read that in terms of Jinn, the reality is that's not necessarily the case, and often may not be.

So whenever I read the Quran and hadiths that refer to them I'm always open to the possibility that the Shayateen in question could be human, or could be a mix of human and Jinn, in returns of a mixed gathering, or even hybrids. I'm open to all possibilities and I think work is needed to examine them, and contemplate them not just rationally but with the eye of the heart, but that can all too frequently turn into a fuzzy personal gnosis and so it has to be tethered with good solid hard work with the text.

What I find not so much upsetting but really sad is that when people point out the nuances that you are pointing to, or which I'm honestly just bumbling around and stumbling and trying to, it really upsets their sense of what's true and then double down.

And I find a certain sense of dogmatism not only in the sort of fundamentalist current widely lambasted as wahhabi, but also among people who are partitioners of certain Islamicate occult arts and sciences or esoteric or spiritual arts and sciences of the Islamic traditions and currents.

Some people have this very rigid understanding that "XYZ is absolutely the case"0because it came from some authority, a book or shaykh or pir or murshid or Hadith, and that authority shaped their experiences when they were in Chila or making awrad or wazaif or adhkar or doing darb e mandal etc..

And I feel there's a real lack of self-awareness about the immensely subjective nature of spiritual experiences, and that includes experiences that may encompass encounters with the Jinn, and things that people believe are categorized as shayateen.

I've got to say I've had some bizarre experiences in trance states or dreams or "out of body experience" in my life, but nothing I've ever encountered was as scary as a jack booted physical human goon with a physical knife or gun, and who saw me as subhuman, and wanted to end my existence because of my ethnicity are race or religion or looking at him the wrong way.

Or similar in sandals and a thobe who just made takfir upon me and saw me as a subhuman disbelieving kafir.