Perhaps the distinction is not often appreciated, as you say. Indeed GDP, or GDP per capita, seems skewed in it's ability to gauge the health of an economy or society.

I thought it interesting that economists obviously realized this, and so, cargo volume, and electricity consumption would become main indicators, verified accurately from satellite imaging. Then there's opaque reporting of data from a statistics bureau. I imagine ballooning bank loans and credit expansion are lagging indicators.

Interesting. I think we could probably go econ101 all Friday night.