So, regardless of what an unnamed DMV employee may have said in response to whatever circumstances were described to him or her, title skipping is illegal in CA and probably a whole lot of other states. It might go unnoticed, but it's actually tax fraud on the part of the seller and it might...
All you've offered so far are ad hominems and name calling.
The core of the matter is that the truck is not truly smog exempt and some apparatchik at the DMV could ruin the party at any time. I suspect most if not all CA owners of imported diesel vehicles who were lucky enough to snag a title...
It is not a hijack to point out to potential buyers that your claim that the vehicle is legitimately smog exempt in CA is incorrect. If the CA DMV were to discover the truck is a foreign market vehicle that has been misclassified, the owner would almost certainly lose the ability to register it...
Legally, the truck is absolutely not CA smog exempt. The rules are different for imported vehicles. Imported diesel vehicles built after some year in the late 60s must be brought in to CARB compliance and get tested regularly. If it has no CARB compliance paperwork it was undoubtedly titled...