> I think it is misleading, because a class is actually an object.

This is only misleading *after* you know all the interesting details about Python and metaclasses.  Prior to that, it is a reasonable and important distinction that I don't want to get lost in weasel words.   The calls from object.__getattribute__ are different that those from type.__getattribute__.  Likewise, data and non-data descriptors can only be described in terms of objects versus classes.  Lastly, descriptors only work when stored in a class, if you store them in instances, they don't get invoked.