It doesn’t help that the website also just…straight up isn’t correct when warning the user how their “private world” functions. I don’t blame people for not understanding this is how private worlds work.
The website claims:
“This world is private and only visible via direct links”
Which isn’t true at all.
The world is very much visible to anyone who sees people in it in their Friend Locations tab.
They can even click on the world thumbnail, view the world details and create new instances without even needing to join the world or visit the website.
Like owlboy mentioned, “private” worlds are very much just unlisted worlds in the sense that you just can’t search for them or favourite them. They otherwise behave exactly like published worlds.
There’s still value in the way things behave currently in certain contexts, so I agree with the sentiment that the current behaviour should be renamed to “unlisted” and treated like a distinct behaviour separate from a true “private” option if that ever ends up becoming a thing.