There is a lot of evidence of keeping muscles moving to promote blood flow to speed recovery, as you’d know with your background. It would take some seriously good evidence to convince me running made good active recovery though but I’m basing my ideas on personal experience and common theories I’ve read, and been taught on coaching courses.
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I totally get that. I would prefer to go for a walk or swim as my chosen activity to have the legs feel better the following day. I would love a sauna too but none of the LCC gyms have them. It was just the absolutism of the idea that running halts recovery I was quetioning. I am, or at least used be 
, light and found that running easy on the flat alright as a next day recovery activity. But that was when I worked in Leeds centre and cycled in too. Where I now work and WFH, there is no flat so wouldn’t bother. Absolute rest would just leave me feeling stiff and more sore than light activity. I was going to rabbit on about PGC-1ἀ and p53 and frequency but that is probably more related to the OP and why I think spending time around AeT is better than the higher end of those zones definied as aerobic.
From an adaptation perspective I doubt there is much difference if you appplied the same load. But as you intimated earlier, it is probably easier and more practical to apply a light load in the pool or on the bike than running. It can be done but, as always, the individual’s running and injury history would be a factor.
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Yes total rest is something I rarely add to a plan. Halting recovery I’d disagree with as well, as the blood is flowing through the muscles but adding damage quicker than the body is repairing if may be a factor. I need to look for some studies on this as I’m always open to ideas.
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Do your athletes do interval training in their running programmes?
Unsurprisingly, they took some violinists and assessed their ability to play the cello, finding that they weren’t very good at it…
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It depends. Some will some maybe not.
yep, so there are potentially (at least) two recovery purposes…
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and what do they do during the intervals (generalising)?
and there lies a problem…
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Depends on the session, walk recoveries are quite common but maybe easy jogging for certain interval intensities.
I can see where you are going with this, but the “jog” recoveries are about lowering HR rather than promoting blood flow to aid muscle repair
and their running form.
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Yes we’ve discussed this many times haven’t we. Definitely another discussion for off line … in a pub preferably 
Well they might be in many cases, but should they be?
Do you ever coach your swimmers to swim poorly?
always up for that 
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Skipping with a rope or skipping with forward momentum?
I’m beginning to understand your point more now, and yes maybe “recovery run” is a very broad description of something that has many component parts. Recovery runs could be about improving form.
If a runner hasn’t been taught to run well at all running paces (and especially ‘recovery’) then a recovery run is less likely to serve them well…especially as the J word shuffle kicks in between reps and after hard sessions.
i fully advocate bike and swim recovery sessions, but not to the total exclusion of running recoveries
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Would you do drills in between intervals? I’m thinking that could be a good recovery and focus the mind on an area you need to improve? It’s something we do in swimming sometimes.
A good question - although I guess you mean do drills as the intervals. Yes, if they are skilled at the drills…but certainly run with good form.
Edited: and the drills are appropriate for the runner
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Seems like static rope