Quote - but who the hell decided that metal is refractive

It is not, but it is a way to solve problems. A perfect metal will have an infinite index of refraction and in metals or conductors the refraction index is a complex number (real + imaginary part). Ok, something imaginary is something that doesn't exist, it is only an abstraction, but this abstraction has the physical meaning of how much is reflected and to where and the imaginary part produce a phase shift of the incoming wave (polarization efects and blah, blah, blah)

Stupidity also evolves!