It really should be an objective determination, just to set it and forget it. If they decide, as apparently Powell has, that it really isn’t a recession because of the strength of the job market, I predict the primary impact will be - a bit of further erosion of public trust in govt.

It matters politically, not economically. With a caveat that economics are a behavioral science, impacted by emotion, but calling it a recession based on 2 qtrs of GDP contraction isn’t going to throw the country into an anxiety attack. The anxiety has been there for months. The “gaslighting” argument would be worse imo.