I met a dude in a bar who says he has a PhD in neuroscience and 2 published papers it would not think twice about calling him a scientist

I would be more interested in how they managed to get through their PhD without having anything published but their thesis. Most PhD recipients are having to be published 3 times during their PhD alone.

Her first publication appears to be from graduate school.

I mean it’s mostly a semantic dispute, there is no real standardization for the title scientist.