Hot take: if people say data is oil, agree with them and then point out what they're saying. Which is that it's a relatively low value toxic substance that's hard to store safely or move around, and if you do things wrong it explodes, catches on fire, or contaminates your entire company, or all three at once. Do you want to store a bunch of barrels of oil in your building? Not if you're sane.
In re: https://infosec.exchange/@SwiftOnSecurity/114916823693937019