Earlier yesterday it wasn't a hurricane though. And shortly after landfall it was no longer a hurricane again - even before it weakened. (cold core => post-tropical cyclone?)

I think using a general catch-all that was not a narrowly-defined technical term that didn't/wouldn't universally apply was actually a prudent and defensible thing. Given their goal of collecting all the concerns of all the stages of the storm under one umbrella.

Even if their motivation was just stupid news branding/sensationalism.

You predicted it was just going to rain a lot; you completely ignored everything reported on storm surges.

Even now, you're concerned with the hurricane classification and missed the fact that barometric pressure, tide timing and bathymetry of the New York Harbor/Long Island Sound were the currently predicted causes of flooding, not simply windspeed. As I responded to your comment, "hurricane" or "tropical storm" classifications were not appropriately descriptive, as Sandy was predicted to (and did) merge with another system to morph from a warm core tropical style system to a cold core nor'easter system. The area of the storm was particularly large, which was another reason for the "super" attribution.