What is the difference between a range image and a depth map?
Your understanding is correct, it's z-values vs distances.

A depth map contains the distances of points in the scene to a plane.

A range image contains the distances of points in the scene to another point. This point is very often the camera's position.

For a depth map the plane that the distances are computed with respect to can be any plane, but it is often parallel to the image plane. Examples of common planes:


The image plane
The focal plane
A plane closer to the object, such that the points closest to the camera have distance zero.


If you of the same scene have:


A range image with the distances to the camera
A depth map with  the distance to the image plane


these two images will look very similar, and it's not possible to conclude whether it's a range image or depth map, unless you have something you know is a plane in the image.