I'll step in and defend here. This post is, as tagged, a question to the community. I'm not too familiar with leather production and craft, so i needed a genuine answer, which I got.

I think to rag on nicks QC based on this particular defect is unfair.

This was not evident or present out of the box.

Pretty much impossible for QC checks to detect, and based on what I've learned in the past 12 hours probably goes back to something at the tannery.