For something to be a replicator, what does that mean? Surely just that it somehow causes more of itself to be made, and has enough variability to change its descendants. A particular organic molecule like say a simple sugar doesn't fit this, because its structure is always the same. But a DNA strand can actually be any of many similar structures.
I think the distinction between what is doing the replication is spurious. The fact is even living replicators need some sort of base resource to exploit to pull off the feat. I could say that animals aren't replicators, because they inherently require other living creatures to be eaten in order to replicate.
To me, for some thing to be a replicator, that thing must include the machinery for replication. Viruses do not include that machinery. Cellular life does not include the food required to replicate, but it has the information, the machinery, and the mechanisms to gather the required resources. It is, I think, somewhat arbitrary where you draw the distinction, but it seems useful to divide replicators which do not include machinery from those that do. There are probably things which sit on this divide and make it hard to draw a distinction. That's life. It's not required to fit into our mental and linguistic bins I suppose.
I think the distinction between what is doing the replication is spurious. The fact is even living replicators need some sort of base resource to exploit to pull off the feat. I could say that animals aren't replicators, because they inherently require other living creatures to be eaten in order to replicate.