Is the above just a spectacularly verbose way of saying that you don't buy Armstrong's own admission that there was no a?

No, Max, just my *disconvuvulated version saying that I think the quote printed in that way covers, for history, the a-less audio (for whatever reason) and the fact that Armstrong stated he did the "a", that he intended it to be there.

Lot's of disconvuvulation in my ken these days...guess that was the bestus I could doest (or somethin' like that).