So let's get to the thematic point. On this I think you are wrongly pedantic as you are in insisting that 28 Days Later isn't a zombie film.
Well, they aren't zombies, they don't die and come back to life, they are infected with a virus that affects the control parts of their brain.
To limit the definition/capabilities of a zombie so extremely takes a lot of the potential away. Considering zombies have enough brain activity for motor functioning, I don't see why it is so implausible that they would be conducive to Pavlovian conditioning and some residual motor memory. If you aren't willing to go along with it that far, you aren't trying hard enough.
It's not implausible, and that wasn't my point of contention. I don't want to see it, it doesn't interest me, it isn't handled well, and it does not fit within the universe Romero has constructed. Why should I go along with it though? Just because a filmmaker puts an idea in a film I have to go along with it? I don't think that's the case, I'm not willing to go along with the direction Romero takes zombies in Day and Land, it's not because I'm not trying hard enough it's because I don't care for said direction.