ETA: it's all about who the estate owner is, how it's set up. These places that you obtain for one linden, then pay weely tier or whatever and you have no resale rights (or many other rights either) I totally agree with you but estates are different, they are not all like that!
Okay. Yeah, if you can do what you want with it, including resell, then it sounds like you did buy it and have a buyer's rights. But what I meant was, a lot of the places that use the TERM 'buy' - are only rentals. A linden $ dollar to 'buy' the land, with no real rights except surface ones, and paying 'tier' is really just renting, as you say above.
What I wish would be put into the SL rules is that the terminology has to MEAN something.