This is getting a bit off topic but as I like the subject and I have little to add to the original question...
There are actually a whole bunch of definitions of Hindustan both then and now which happily coexist. When discussing locations inside India it will usually refer to the north. In such cases it can as you say it can mean everything north of the Vindhyas (ie everything not Dakan/Deccan which is the South even though the definition of Deccan varies wildly as well), but it can also mean a much more narrow area which is basically roughly modern Punjab+Uttar Pradesh+Bihar and Bengal. It can also take an even more narrow definition and just mean roughly the area labeled as Hindustani culture in the game (ie the core of most semi-recent Great Indian/Indo-Muslim Empires).
At the same time it could always be used to refer to India in it's entirety. Even much later EIC officials would use both the 'all of India' definition and the 'Northern India' one depending on the context.
None of this changes that it's an exonym though and most of all used by the Muslim Empires in India, that's why Bharat was added as it's a much more likely name for an India formed by a Hindu state (though it could probably be opened to Buddhists too).
There's actually a pretty nice little text about the concept of India in this era by M. Athar Ali* mostly leaning on when Akbar reasons about what India is and encompasses in the Akbarnama (mostly covers definitions of Hindustan as you might expect but still worth a read).
*"The Evolution of the Perception of India: Akbar and Abu Fazl"
There are actually a whole bunch of definitions of Hindustan both then and now which happily coexist. When discussing locations inside India it will usually refer to the north. In such cases it can as you say it can mean everything north of the Vindhyas (ie everything not Dakan/Deccan which is the South even though the definition of Deccan varies wildly as well), but it can also mean a much more narrow area which is basically roughly modern Punjab+Uttar Pradesh+Bihar and Bengal. It can also take an even more narrow definition and just mean roughly the area labeled as Hindustani culture in the game (ie the core of most semi-recent Great Indian/Indo-Muslim Empires).
At the same time it could always be used to refer to India in it's entirety. Even much later EIC officials would use both the 'all of India' definition and the 'Northern India' one depending on the context.
None of this changes that it's an exonym though and most of all used by the Muslim Empires in India, that's why Bharat was added as it's a much more likely name for an India formed by a Hindu state (though it could probably be opened to Buddhists too).
There's actually a pretty nice little text about the concept of India in this era by M. Athar Ali* mostly leaning on when Akbar reasons about what India is and encompasses in the Akbarnama (mostly covers definitions of Hindustan as you might expect but still worth a read).
*"The Evolution of the Perception of India: Akbar and Abu Fazl"
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