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Socialism is the transitionary stage of society between capitalism and communism.
Socialism begins when the proletariat seize power away from the bourgeoisie, ending the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and installing the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the meaningful point at which the transition between capitalism and communism has begun, the point at which the capitalists are not in power, but instead the working class.
All states that achieve this status are socialist states in practice. The varying unique conditions each country finds themselves in will define what economic and transitional policies they undertake, which will look very different depending on the strategy they're pushed into by the varying conditions.
To some degree isn't it just describing the decoupling of power from capital?
Ultimately capitalism began when the bourgeoisie seized power from the monarchs and developed a system that was designed around empowering them. The development of the capitalist economic system comes after the seizure of power and develops around the resistances and problems it encounters.
The same can be said of socialism. It begins when the proletariat seize power but what it becomes is a process of time and development. The obsession people have with full central planning vs markets vs something else is not as important as the seizure of power and construction of institutions that maintain that power.