"Quotative Likes" don't misrepresent people, people misrepresent people.
Stephen's all like: "The quotative like introduces a 'more-or-less' quotation, and by using quotation marks, you make it look like I actually said this - but I never did - you're totally putting words in my mouth, bro." [1]
A punctuation expert might counter: "Quotation marks aren't legally binding. They're just a convenient way of demarcating the beginning and end of a quoted section -- regardless of whether the quote is real, hypothetical, or a re-enactment." And he'd be right! [2]
And having been convinced, Stephen is like: "yes, I now fully accept that when using the quotative like, it is appropriate to use quotation marks - but that's just a distraction from the main point - I still find the 'quotative like' distasteful - regardless of punctuation marks". [3]
And I'm like: "haha, stephen'll probably be raging that I'm representing him as admitting that he was wrong, even though his point still stands that the whole 'quotation marks' thing is just a side-issue." [4]
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[1] In this first paragraph, the quoted section is my faithful re-enactment of Stephen who has expressed this opinion to me in the past. The 'quotative like' makes it clear that this is a re-enactment, so the reader has no reason to think this is a verbatim quotation.
[2] This second paragraph illustrates a different use of quotation marks - a hypothetical direct quotation - again, its clear that this is hypothetical, so the reader has no reason to expect that this is a verbatim quotation.
[3] This one is still valid, but I'm starting to be a bit devious. I'm using the 'quotative like', which again indicates that this is a re-enactment, but this time I'm being tricky. By prefacing this with "And having been convinced" [by the previous imaginary speaker], I indicate that this isn't a real re-enactment, it's a hypothetical. I'm not putting words in the mouth of the real Stephen, I'm putting words in the mouth of a Hypothetically Convinced Stephen (H-C-S).
[4] Now this paragraph is genuinely problematic - I'm not continuing the conversation between a grammarian and H-C-S. I've clearly taken a step back here from that imagined realm, and I'm now more-or-less re-enacting my genuine self. The problem here is when re-enacted-me says: "his point still stands..." Now I'm guilty of misrepresenting Stephen. He didn't make that point, H-C-S did! I have no right to attribute this to Stephen. I've made it look like I'm just backing him up but I'm really agreeing with something that was said by a character of my own construction.
A punctuation expert might counter: "Quotation marks aren't legally binding. They're just a convenient way of demarcating the beginning and end of a quoted section -- regardless of whether the quote is real, hypothetical, or a re-enactment." And he'd be right! [2]
And having been convinced, Stephen is like: "yes, I now fully accept that when using the quotative like, it is appropriate to use quotation marks - but that's just a distraction from the main point - I still find the 'quotative like' distasteful - regardless of punctuation marks". [3]
And I'm like: "haha, stephen'll probably be raging that I'm representing him as admitting that he was wrong, even though his point still stands that the whole 'quotation marks' thing is just a side-issue." [4]
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[1] In this first paragraph, the quoted section is my faithful re-enactment of Stephen who has expressed this opinion to me in the past. The 'quotative like' makes it clear that this is a re-enactment, so the reader has no reason to think this is a verbatim quotation.
[2] This second paragraph illustrates a different use of quotation marks - a hypothetical direct quotation - again, its clear that this is hypothetical, so the reader has no reason to expect that this is a verbatim quotation.
[3] This one is still valid, but I'm starting to be a bit devious. I'm using the 'quotative like', which again indicates that this is a re-enactment, but this time I'm being tricky. By prefacing this with "And having been convinced" [by the previous imaginary speaker], I indicate that this isn't a real re-enactment, it's a hypothetical. I'm not putting words in the mouth of the real Stephen, I'm putting words in the mouth of a Hypothetically Convinced Stephen (H-C-S).
[4] Now this paragraph is genuinely problematic - I'm not continuing the conversation between a grammarian and H-C-S. I've clearly taken a step back here from that imagined realm, and I'm now more-or-less re-enacting my genuine self. The problem here is when re-enacted-me says: "his point still stands..." Now I'm guilty of misrepresenting Stephen. He didn't make that point, H-C-S did! I have no right to attribute this to Stephen. I've made it look like I'm just backing him up but I'm really agreeing with something that was said by a character of my own construction.