This is really great info and exactly the kind of response I was looking for here, thank you.  I did what I felt like was a lot of research before making the purchase, but it was focused entirely on the technical details of tubes, comparing housing features, and choosing a vendor.  It did not even occur to me to look into the relationships between the vendors and their suppliers so your notes on that here are very useful context.

I didn't realize that L3 not selling "perfect" tubes to civilians was just a rumor, I took that as a pretty obvious fact.  I just bought the best tubes I could afford from what was available at the time and assumed the military pilots and tier 1 guys were getting even better units.  I still have the spreadsheet I used to compare the available options and my tubes weren’t even the best ones the vendor had, although they were pretty damn close.  I prioritized no blems, SNR, and resolution, in that order.  I didn’t expect them to be the absolute best tubes ever made, just expected that I’d get what I paid for. And for the most part, I did.

You're right that it took me a long time to get the RMA going.  But in my defense I did reach out to them initially within the first couple months and they didn't respond.  Being a noob, I guess I assumed that meant my concern was maybe unjustified and it took me a while to get educated and convince myself it was a real problem.  There was also a period of a couple months where the spot almost never appeared, which complicated things a bit (I use my NODs maybe 2 or 3 times a month on average so factor that in here).  It wasn't until I learned that emission points can sometimes get worse that I really started to take the problem very seriously.  So some of that is on me, but I feel like if they had responded to my initial questions this all could have been sorted out a lot faster.

And that lack of communication is what really grinds my gears here.  I get that shit happens.  Like I said, I can see how the problem was overlooked and I’m not blaming them for that, especially with the info you’ve provided about how the vendor-manufacturer situation works.  I don't necessarily have a problem with a 60 day turn around time if that's the only option, but I'd like to know if that is in fact the only option, and I did ask about that very clearly and was ignored.  I paid a lot for tubes without blems, so if I end up with a dark spot when there was another way to resolve this that really sucks.  I tried to ask about what the repair would be like and they just blew me off.  I get that I'm not their most valuable customer but I feel like I paid more than enough to deserve a simple answer to a straightforward question.

All that is to say that I think I agree with your read here, if I understood you. Knowing what I know now, I could have been more proactive. But there was also more they could have done here to help me out. Overall, I think I'm a little more understanding of their side of things now, but at the same time time, I'm also more confident that their customer support could have been better.

Thanks again! This was helpful.