Suppose “spoke” does not mean literal articulation. This can support a figurative-use analysis, but it does not automatically decide whether the relevant figure is metaphor, metonymic transfer, or primarily an attributional construction.
Refuting one description does not logically establish its rival without further evidence. Where the expression can involve indication or necessary association alongside similarity, the original context still matters for classification.
That is why the objections address the stronger claim that derivative metaphor must invariably be reduced to implicit metaphor.