It’s not being used to describe a large diverse group of people, it’s being used to describe an astronomical body. You just said that eskimo is a valid description for some of the people way up north. So why is it automatically a smear to name something after that particular group? Just because it’s not a generic name for all of them? If I named a quasar the aborigine quasar would that also be a smear against all other black people?
Because when it was named that, Eskimo meant "Any non white living in an Igloo in Alaska" or something equally asinine.
If you ever visit a Tlingit or other tribe, one of the first things they will kindly ask you is to not call them Eskimos. It is so pervasive, that it is pretty insulting and it continues to this day.