No. Your two examples are the same. They are just data encoded in XML. As being discussed at present in another thread, the xsl:value-of might just be input data to a process that produces canonical  xslt, or Xquery or whatever.  Conversely the airport xml could be processed by some auto-pilot system to control a flight . In what way are the two fragments different?

My <airport> use case is an example of (b). The <airport> element  is an  instruction. An aircraft flight management system (FMS) reacts to the presence of that element with a certain specific defined behavior. to fly the airplane.

My <xsl:value-of ...> use case is an example of (a). The <value-of> provides information..It demonstrates, for example in this email, aspects of XSLT syntax.

David