[throwaway2202]

Not only just a superficial change, and if anyone calls it parsi in iran they just come across like a literary person, it’s that Classical persian literature as we know it is from after arab era until 1300s. Persian imported arabic words and used them widely in its literature. Maybe an analogy is english should be called Anglish.

The difference between Persian and Farsi matters in english world because it is political. In english, Farsi doesn’t carry prestige, same way iran doesn’t carry Persia. But they do for those in iran. I’m not familiar enough with afghanistan to know first hand, but perhaps same can be said for Dari. I might be wrong though on this last one.