Operational Time, Conformal Projection, and the Interpretation of Cosmological Expansion

We explore a conceptual interpretation of cosmological expansion motivated by the Clock Universality No-Go Theorem. Assuming that causal ordering—not elapsed proper time—is the invariant structure shared by cosmological observables, we examine how inequivalent operational time parametrizations can induce apparent expansion when null-propagated signals are interpreted using matter-adapted clocks. Without modifying General Relativity or introducing new dynamics, we show how a conformal projection between operational time classes provides a consistent reinterpretation of redshift, the Hubble constant, and their observed bifurcations. This framework is explicitly non-unique and is presented as an interpretive realization rather than a derived necessity.