Am I justified in my frustration?

Well, Troy made the point to me that seals it when he made mention that any business would accept that rear end as a core, say, if they were replacing yours with a reman or some such and required a core. Since it doesn't appear to have anything stickin through it anywhere, parts stores would even accept it as a core. So he's right there.

We all have different ideas and opinions of "what's what". That's something to think about, too.