The one point in my post I thought was strongest is the wild animal case - there is probably suffering from the victim, but there’s no exploitation, a wild animal doesn’t have any concept of that and therefore cannot be exploiting (there might be an exception but I don’t think we need to go there)

I was going to respond to this, but I’m not sure you understood this part of the the comment you replied to:

Exploitation, by contrast, is something you can control. You are the one doing the exploiting such as using an animal for food, clothing, entertainment, or labor. You can choose to stop. You don’t need to measure the inner experience of a cow or a chicken. You just need to ask: Am I treating this being as a resource? If yes, and you don’t have to, then stop. That is both actionable and measurable

Exploitation is independent of what the exploited experience.