I agree with these comments. Ultimately the level disturbance and overall impact on nature of an iNatter pursuing their hobby in their garden versus someone who travels to remote places to observe organisms off-trail will be different (same for birders and photographers).
Additionally, these categories are pretty fluid. If you happen to be a professional photographer specialising on bird photography, and you upload your pictures to iNat, then what are you? They are so close to each other that many, perhaps most people, who fit into one, would fit neatly into multiple.
Also I think that we need to keep in mind that disturbance ≠ disturbance (even though that makes my computer’s grammar checker upset for some reason).
We’ve had a discussion on the forum back in May which may be relevant—How Much Disturbance Is Okay?—and @dentalflossbay said “Foot access beats bulldozer access”. So in addition to the disturbances we cause, we should also consider their effects. For example: A photographer with a big reach may cause more disturbance than an iNatter, but the photos they take end up becoming famous and help nature conservation, which ultimately prevents…
All in all, this topic proves that iNatters care for wildlife and the environment which causes us to act consciously to avoid unnecessary disturbances and harm.
I believe, if we 1) ask ourselves whether an action we take will have no, a negligible, or a positive overall effect on the environment, 2) always try to choose the least disruptive path of doing something, and 3) clean up any mess we may have made, then we needn’t put any blame on ourselves.