[throwaway290]

You wrote four paragraphs assuming your parent comment urged authors to pass fiction for facts. There are tons of stylistic choices (using names like Bob and Alice, etc.) that make it clear when something is meant as an illustrative example. Let's not cancel the metaphor.

That aside, I'd be very concerned if someone took everything they read as truth unless declared otherwise. I think the overwhelmingly common behavior is to explicitly mark a real story, not the opposite.