Conflict about classifying Protist?

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The discussion highlights inconsistencies in the classification of protists, noting that the term "protist" is not a legitimate taxon and is considered paraphyletic. There is ongoing debate about whether protists should be classified as a kingdom or domain, with some sources, like Wikipedia, indicating a lack of consensus. An anonymous expert provides a specific example of Apicomplexa, detailing its classification within the domain Eukaryota and kingdom Chromalveolata. Historically, organisms were classified into five kingdoms, but advances in molecular genetics have led to a new system that categorizes life into three domains: Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria. This shift aims to align biological classification with cladistic principles, emphasizing the need for further research to establish monophyletic groupings among the diverse phyla traditionally grouped as protists.
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I was surpriesed to see that several information about protist is not consistent. Let's take a look.

According to my biology lecture note:
If it isn't anything, it is a protist:
Kingdom protists
-not a clade
-not a legitimate taxon



According to the wikipedia

There is still lot of conflict whether protist is a kingdom or domain.

According to an expert(annonymous):

Example:Apicomplexa=
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Chromalveolata
Superphylum: Alveolata
Phylum: Apicomplexa
excavata, chromalveolata, Rhizaria is kingdom.
------------------

What do you think? Everyone has different opinion how the protist should be classified. What should be preferred theses days? i.e., which one is more trustworthy?
 
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Previously, the highest category of classification of organisms was kingdom. There 'were' five kingdoms: animals, plants, protists, bacteria and fungi. However, this classification was primarily based on things like morphology and when the molecular geneticists looked at it they discovered that these where not supported by the data. The new highest category became domain and the domains are Eukaryota, Archeae and Bacteria (sometimes called Eubacteria to avoid confusing it with the every day term "bacteria", which applies to archeae and bacteria). This was done in an effort to make systematics adhere to the principles of cladistics. Protista is an informal term for a loose grouping of various different phyla that does not fulfill the criteria for a clade (it is paraphyletic). It refers to solitary or undifferentiated colonial eukaryotes. More research is needed to fit these various phyla into monophyletic groups satisfying the criteria for a clade.
 

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