As stated (on three separate posts already) validation isn't just a simple and single concept.
There are different validation rules depending upon whether you are mining, relaying or verifying a block (i.e. context).
So the rule about a NOP is not the same rule in all three situations (something that you just don't seem to be able to grok).
Thanks. Well, indeed, the fact that the validity rules are different for different players is new for me. Is it explained in some place that I should have read? (The descriptions of soft/hard fork that I have read, for example, always say "the rules", "the old rules", "the new rules" -- never "the miner rules" or "the client rules", etc.
So, does the current version of the Core mining software accept transactions with those NOPs, for inclusion into the candidate block?
Would that software accept as parent a block mined by some other miner that contains them?
(also - I am assuming that you know that [ ... ] the rules [ for relay nodes ] are also dependent upon whether you are relaying a tx or a block)
No, I did not know that either. But, again, one cannot assume anything about the behavior of non-mining relay nodes, so it seems pointless to worry about that.