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I had dinosaur biology as a class in undergrad and had one of the last hold out professors that believed raptors should be birds and their own lineage within the archosaurs but separate from what we now call the non-avian dinosaurs. The main two arguments were that the digit rank in the hands of birds and dinosaurs did not match up and that a shift could not be explained via embryonic ontogeny. To the best of my knowledge though it turns out earlier studies misidentified digit rank so in reality the ranks matched. Also a shift in digit order was achieved in embryonic studies. There is then the question of are they “dinosaurs” or “dinosauromorphs” (sort of like is it an “ammonite” or “ammonoid”). For me, they’re all in the same clade and since taxonomic rank is relative it seems unnecessary to introduce a new term to the public such as “dinosauromorphs” so I’d say all dinosaurs.

Thank your answer! I agree that there are proofs pointing in both directions to saying they are, or simply dinosaur -morphs. Thanks again!