"It's obvious it's not accurate enough to be trusted as "official assay" or "news release" worthy now, right or wrong?"
It would largely be dismissed because it would not be used by 3rd party objective entities but by the vested interest, therefore not to be used for official/legal application.
"My understanding is that it doesn't give you an average value of the core. That speck might have 5% nickel, that speck doesn't. That speck does, that speck doesn't, this speck does, this speck doesn't. Get my drift?"
I would agree with you on this, but as you are looking to discredit it as to it not being able to produce a definitive report, I would be looking at how it indicates that there is sufficient evidence to warrant great consideration for where to put my investment dollars given our understanding on how nickel deposits manifest themselves. To return an analogy for your earlier one, and a good one it was, I would say that if I'm looking at an apple and I search it's entire surface, I may not know exactly how sweet it is, but, given what I know about an apples colour and feel, I know that it will likely be better for me to take a "bite" than not.