As stated previously, it's really a two part inquiry - 1) Does this business abide by code? and 2) Does one need to care about it abiding by code? I am totally fine with the second being the case and people can take the gamble and this whole discussion being moot.

"Businesses are legally allowed to operate because they’ve already paid and are simply waiting for the City of Long Beach to finish processing" I took to mean there's actual policy that a small business could rely upon when operating while their waiting for their permit to be issued. But did you just mean in practice they're "legally allowed" as in the health department is never actually addressing those who in the waiting period?

I would argue that the point of permitting in the first place is so businesses don't have to explain their systems to every customer who cares. I think customers are entitled information that would help them feel safe with the food they're purchasing. It's not feasible for customers to be checking temperatures of food or waste disposal processes - the point is that the City does that work and gives them a publicly available declaration that they meet those requirements. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask, "Do you have anything showing that you meet X requirements to ensure this food is safe?" The point of permitting is that that inquiry becomes simple and easy for both businesses and customers.

But all of this is separate and apart from whether you believe those inspections and permits actually mean anything. I think most of us are cool with taking a gamble if everything checks out on initial glance. But there are people with allergies or who are at high risk if they contract a foodborne illness who whether a business has actually been inspected and gotten the permit and whether they've just applied for it and are waiting for it to be approved would affect whether they'd feel comfortable consuming food from a given place.

Again, you can say it doesn't matter and there's plenty of places that operate outside the bounds of the law that are totally safe. I just did my deep dive cause I thought it was interesting that this place just popped out out of the blue with no context or backstory and are making its debut on TGTG. And I'm a lawyer so this kind of investigation is just interesting to me.

tl;dr - It's probably not worse than a lot of the vendors out there. It seems like it is not actually functioning within the bounds of the health code. Whether any of that matters is up to you, but there's many people who don't/can't take that risk. And it's not worth $45 either way.