Love is a motivating force, but, it cannot create nor do anything independently. It is powerless in isolation. That is how to know for certain that God is not love. God creates in isolation. God is independent. Love cannot create in isolation. Love is not idependent. God possesses love, but God is not love.
Equating God with love is like equating the driver with the car. From the ouside, from beyond the car, the driver is occulded and obscured, and without the driver the car doesn't do anything. It would be silly to imagine a car driving itself. ( Pre AI, of course ). In the same way, God's love is observable. God's love cannot do anything without God. But unlike the car, God is not occluded and obscured, God is completely hidden. Because of this, it makes sense to make the mistake and think that God is love, even though that is just one of the infinite capabilites and qualities of God, but that is woefully incomplete. Perhaps all that individual can see or imagine is love, and cannot perceive God beyond the actions of "loving". That is a limitation on the individual.
The other problem with equating God with love, is, if an individual is suffering, and struggling through no fault of their own, this naturally produces doubt and/or a crisis of faith. So, the equivilance is not only incomplete, it's also potentially harmful.