BPMN: Data Object Reference - different element?

[Paolo F Cantoni]

The BPMN 2.0 specification states:

DataObject
The Data Object class is an item-aware element. Data Object elements MUST be contained within Process or Sub-Process elements. Data Object elements are visually displayed on a Process diagram. Data Object References are a way to reuse Data Objects in the same diagram. They can specify different states of the same Data Object at
different points in a Process. Data Object Reference cannot specify item definitions, and Data Objects cannot specify states. The names of Data Object References are derived by concatenating the name of the referenced Data Object the state of the Data Object Reference in square brackets as follows: <Data Object Name> [ <DataObject Reference State> ].

It seems to me from that definition that there is an implication that Data Objects and Data Object References aren't the same thing (one is a reference to the other).  

EA allows you to specify the dataObjectRef and the dataState properties of a Data Object thereby rendering it as a Data Object Reference.

While this is better than nothing, I would have expected that they would be two different types of objects and as the specification says, you'd get the definitional aspects (such as identity information) of the reference from the object itself and only allow the state to be specified in the reference.
Otherwise, as at present, the name of the Data Object Reference has to be manually set to be the same as the referenced Data Object (rather than setting it automatically when you make the link to the referenced object).

Thoughts?
TIA,
Paolo