The horse is dead

Let's put this into perspective. Take Hughes out the equation. The OP is beating his chest about years of experience. DECADES of experience. To which I'm not doubting. Nor am I doubting that Dave can be "short". The OP has basically already all but admitted to being sloth about not wanting to take the engine apart to make it right. Anyone who has done any semi-serious small Mopar effort, knows that these parts DO NOT just fall together. The reason for Chevy just falling together is the eons of support for the platform. So to banter about 1.6 Chevy roller rockers just falling in, compared to the Mopar that has to be modified, is apples to oranges. Ignorant almost.
It sounds like you want to take the subject out of the subject. Just so you know the subject here is customer service...
Let's take the thousand dollars for the parts spent out of the equation, and just talked about how to treat people on the phone....
My parts are great.I'll never do business here again...