the inode is the important thing when all is said and done. It is flexible in that it can contain all the metadata needed to present a file to a process. Sometimes that metadata is a list of blocks in the filesystem. sometimes it points to another inode.

I think of it like an old-timey 'card catalog'. You have a bunch of tiny drawers filled with cards. Some of the cards are big and blank spacers with a prominent tab sticking above the normal top edges (Directory). Sometimes you have a card that points to another card elsewhere in the catalog (link). Sometimes you find the details of a specific book on a specific shelf (block data).

Point is, they are all cards. The comment essentially asked for a command to say 'how many cards between these two spacers'. It's a "trick" question as old as usenet to spring the distinction between link inodes and list of blocks inodes and say "Ah-HAH!! gotcha", but in reality it's a silly game of jumping levels, misdirecting semantics and prey upon the distribution of understanding in a forum for personal glory.

The inode is the item, it is the card that is being counted, no matter what is printed on it. imho.