What's your point? One can also talk about stellar evolution, planetary evolution, and even evolution of the universe. None of these have anything to do with the theory that new species of life can arise as a result of the variation over time in the allele frequencies of organism populations, which is the THEORY of evolution. One hypothesis for the formation of life by natural processes does indeed involve a stepwise process from simple molecules to more complex organic molecules to complex aggregates of organic molecules to the simplest possible self-replicating aggregates to fully formed living cells. That is not within the scope of the real theory of evolution, however. The scope of the real theory of evolution is limited to what occurs in populations of living organisms and has nothing to do with how the first living organism formed. If high school biology textbook writers don't understand this, the problem lies with the poor understanding of the textbook writer. This may be reflective of the abysmal state of science education in the US, but it does nothing to change the scope or content of the theory of evolution.
My point is that only if the beginning of macro-evolution and the continuation of macro-evolution are different things would hypotheses of the origin of life and the theory of evolution be two different things. For example, we can look at a statement like this:
"I have tried to conform to the overriding rule that life be treated as a natural process, its origin, evolution and manifestations…as governed by the same laws as nonliving processes. I exclude…finalism, or teleology, which assumes goal-directed causes in biological processes….My approach demands that every step in the origin and development of life on Earth be explained in terms of its antecedent and immediate physical-chemical causes."
Christian de Duve
I understand your logical distinction between the two, but what evidence do you have that the beginning of macro-evolution and the continuation of it are entirely different things in fact, not just in logical category?
Cordially,