If you are familiar with the "real" rules for introductions (when you introduce somebody TO somebody, instead of the other way around -- age, sex, rank, etc. and how those are reconciled) you can see how there is a difference between worship, devotion, and honor. If the honor due to somebody is important, then degrees of honor are important, too.
Conversely, how many times do you tell your spouse or your children that you love them more than life, that they are the most adorable, sweetest man (or little girl, or little boy) in the world? You're not worshipping them, you're just expressing your love. In the same way, when I call Mary "my life, my sweetness, and my hope" I am expressing my love and devotion to her -- not that she is somehow the equivalent of God.
Mary is due a special honor as having been chosen as worthy to carry God in her body for nine months and then to raise him until the time of his public ministry. That privilege is unique, and so is she.
I don't see how you can call formal prayer and charitable hyperbole "the same."
If I am competent to make fine distinctions, am I also not competent to identify the lack thereof?