Yes, we've heard it before and it's still silly. The term serves only to distinguish intangibles from physical objects. It does not imply that all of those intangibles are equivalent any more than "physical property" implies that boats are the same thing as staplers. This is a non-issue. It's a useful term.
It's useful in some contexts but overly broad in others. The differences between a boat and a stapler are readily apparent; the differences between a copyright and a patent, much less so. Imprecise language takes advantage of that.
Language shapes thought; people have a different opinion on the estate tax when you call it a "death tax". IP may be a useful shorthand, but it carries with it a different set of implicit assumptions than "creator's monopoly".
