It is your phylogeny (not philosophy), you're proposing a different phylogeny than science does.

Archosaurs, such as crocodillians, diverged from a common ancestor BEFORE birds/dinosaurs did, from other reptiles.

In order for what you're saying to be true, we'd have to exclude crocodillians from being reptiles. No standard definition would not include crocodillians as reptiles. In modern taxonomy, we use what are called monophyletic groups to determine relatedness. Because of this, birds and all dinosaurs fall under the clade archosauria, and are therefore reptiles.

In essence, what you're proposing would be like saying "Your cousin is a reptile, but not your brother"