Aha, so you are saying one should not think of 128k Bytes but 64k Words? This is interesting. I think this knowledge is helpful
Yes for flash memory. Now data memory (SRAM) is byte based as it's separate memory and char type variables are just 8 bits wide. It's a function of the Harvard architecture (separate program and data memories) and the more standard Von neumann architecture where instructions and data share the same physical memory.
Lefty