I suppose, ultimately, there is no difference.
You are right.
I just feel that the majority of times he’s just being beaten. That probably then leads to a natural leaning towards Vettel in the team. And then there are the times that he is actual asked to be behind Vettel. I think that is probably 70:20:10 (ish). The 10 isn’t the lead story or representative of the situation.
Monza was a good example of the situation for me. Vettel was removed from the situation. Any inherent favouritism towards Vettel meant getting behind Raikkonen in that situation! In what is considered the best race car he needed to get a few seconds gap to cover off Hamilton. He failed.
For me the narrative is that he isn’t up to being a number 1 not that he is employed to be a number 2.