The problem is there's a conflation here. "States of matter" which are solid/liquid/gas and "states of matter" which are quantum spin liquids are not the same thing. One is an English term, and one is a more precise physic/chemistry term.
Don't try to understand one in terms of the other. And your "shift in thinking" has loooong since occurred. It just isn't useful to conventional English, so it has not picked it up.
In English, there is just "ice", the "solid" form of water. In physics/chemistry, there are 15 known phases of ice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Phases
Don't try to understand one in terms of the other. And your "shift in thinking" has loooong since occurred. It just isn't useful to conventional English, so it has not picked it up.