At least I think they mean the same thing. Maybe I shouldn’t be quite so dogmatic.
That shows a bit of an open mind.
The terms don't mean the same thing. "Shall be considered [as, or to be]" is and was a legal term of art used to establish a legal fiction.
I'm making up a poor example, poor because no excise tax statute would be written this way, but "for purposes of excise taxation, an apple shall be considered as an orange" is a hypothetical legal fiction.
There are legal fictions in operation today. A patent application mailed via express mail is considered received in the patent office the instant it is deposited at the post office. This matters because the filing date on a patent application is the date it is received at the patent office, and filing date has a legal effect and relevance.