When I’m looking for unknowns or familiars to identify, if something is identified to species, I don’t identify it as a higher taxon. If, however, a member of Odocoileus (I’ve had one run into my pickup, and I’ve seen some others) is identified to subspecies, I identify it as species to get it to research grade.
I recently started browsing disagreements. A few days ago, someone in Dubai observed what he called a darkling beetle. Someone else came along and identified it as a specific Arabian shield bug. Not knowing Arabian bugs, but seeing the resemblance to the local (but foreign) marmorated bug, I identified it as Pentatomoidea, which includes stink bugs and shield bugs. Is this good practice? Two more people identified it to species, and it is now research grade, despite still having the original identification as a beetle.
Yes, it is both good practice and useful. When there is a high-order disagreement (e.g., beetles vs. bugs), it is harder for observations to get seen by experts, since the bug people are usually going to be looking for observations in Heteroptera or lower, not in Pterygota. So your ID for Pentatomoidea added another vote indicating that it is a true bug and not a beetle, which helps get the 2/3 +1 majority needed to change the community ID to something more specific.
Occasionally these broader supporting IDs get misinterpreted as disagreeing with the finer ID (e.g. Arabian shield bug), but note that it is not treated by iNat’s community ID calculation as a disagreement because it is finer than the community ID (Pterygota). But to reduce confusion, some of us like to add a note “supporting” or “not disagreeing with finer IDs” in order to indicate that our broader ID reflects our own lack of knowledge rather than doubt about the finer ID.
In the colloquial sense of bugs, meaning insects in general, yes. But scientifically, we have the term “true bugs,” which refers to Heteroptera, a specific taxonomic group.
If I say “bug”, meaning an insect, I include all of Hemiptera, so aphids and cicadas, as well as stink bugs, are bugs. But if I’m developing software, a bug isn’t an arthropod at all. Sometimes I see “Bug Reports” here and think someone should report a cicada there.