I'm afraid it does matter. If it didn't matter what they called it...they wouldn't feel the need to change it now. By no means do I think what they were doing behind the scenes or what they did at the lake was a waste of time. However, not considering this an abduction....meant there was really no widespread alert to be on the look out for these girls. (LE stated several times there was no danger) Most people I've spoken to about this (who are not "sleuthers") either new nothing about it or thought the girls were in the lake after some sort of drowning accident.
IMO and from what I know from following a vast number of these cases...the only time I've ever seen LE search a body of water this exstensively and NOT ruled that it could also be an abduction was when someone had actually seen the child/children fall in the water...or at least knew for a fact that the child/children had went swimming. By ALL accounts from the many locals we have here....every one of them has said it was not a lake people swim in. Nor did LE have anyone that said they saw the girls go in the water.
Again, I think perhaps it's an Iowa thing.
I live in Iowa and I haven't talked to anyone in my area (90 miles southwest of Evansdale) who isn't on the alert for those two girls. I have seen for myself that it's like kids have evaporated; either they are with adults in close attendance or you just don't see them.
And today it's definitely not the weather. It's 5:30 pm Iowa time as I type this, which is usually the warmest part of the day. It's 84 degrees, relatively low humidity, sunny with a nice breeze. Gorgeous weather to be outside and normally there would be kids galore in town and my neighbour's kids would be zipping around on their ATVs, doing chores and playing.
Not today.
When I lived in Iowa City, there were many occasions when LE had the river level dropped drastically so that they could search for a potential drowning victim. There were often witnesses who saw the person go in but on at least two occasions, they did it just in case (a missing student in the 1970s) and once when an overturned rowing scull was seen going over the dam (the occupant had gone into the water way back in Coralville and not bothered to notify LE that the scull had gotten away from them).
So draining the pond didn't seem so strange to me. It could be done relatively easily, it didn't substantially hinder LE and for everyone's peace of mind, it had to be done.
And heck, the Cedar River is low right now, the communities downstream probably welcomed a dab of extra water.