No I’m not defending anything, the manipulation and elements of what you stay focused on do exist, I just think it can be distracting and the broad brush doesn’t fit all, not all the time.

Mea culpa, , mitts said no transaction “at” market ??? whatever, a limit order left overnight wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, an all day market order might be, maybe. Lately there are more days this doesn’t trade, someone probably did have to call a MM,,, to wake em up, haha ,, and yet, he’s a crook.
I’m sure you’ve spent enough time digging through the FINRA rules to know there’s no end to possible ways of executing and reporting a trade, having only one explanation for everything that appears unusual seems a little to easy, just me that’s all.