Lately, I don't see myself as a bike commuter. I rode bikes to get to school on and off through high school and college and again for my graduate degree, and to work on and off in between. So at the time, I was. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange my life to make it feasible again. For now, when I ride a road bike, which I do on the same public roads as everybody else, I'm quite content to call it cycling, or just say I'm going for a ride. I don't see any shame in that. You've as much as said that your motivation is riding for pleasure, and I think a lot of us get into it that way and then add commuting when it becomes feasible or we realize it's been feasible all along.
Something I find useful about this forum is that it's hard to find other groups that can talk about fenders, racks, bags, lights, etc. And, I like to think I have useful information to share on occasion. Aside from a brief period when I could leave enough stuff at my office and had a secure place to leave it to ride in on a racing bike, I've also always found it useful to have a bike dedicated to commuting.
It seems that this is also a good forum for mountain bikers who don't want to join roadbikereview.com or bikeforums.net to come and ask road bike questions.