I think I agree with you, but I think the kind of relationship we have is more based on our understanding and interpretation of the aite (*such* a convenient Japanese word that I wish we had a direct equivalent for--it means "person you're interacting with," could be interlocutor or partner or competitor or whatever) than on anything inherent in them. In other words, if we think we're interacting with a sentient being, that changes the nature of the relationship in our mind--but we may or may not be correct in our assessment, and our sense of the relationship changes based on our impression, not on anything in the aite. .... which I guess is true in any relationship too? If we think someone's in love with us, it changes how we think about them and react to them, but we may be wrong in our assessment--but it's not their feelings about us that determine how we interact with them but our understanding of their feelings. ... I feel like maybe I'm belaboring an obvious point, and if so, I apologize. It's one of those times where I'm not sure if I'm saying something glaringly obvious that other people don't even bother saying or if I'm saying something worth saying.