YMMV is just a catch all expression (from the car commercials) that means things may be a little different for you. Inspectors are a strange breed of cat, particularly if they come from a legacy before national certification and licensing. A lot of times they make up rules as the go along.
In your case YOU are probably the only one with any skin in the game. In most states inspectors are protected by soverign immunity and an injured party will have to sue the state to get to them. The state has to agree that they will let someone sue them.
It is a lot easier to go after the license holder.
Potting is that epoxy compound you put inside the wet niche, totally encasing the wet lug and the #8 insulated conductor that runs along with the lamp cord back to the listed swimming pool J box (AKA deck box, although they are not usually on the deck)
See 680.23(B)(2) Wiring Extending Directly to the Forming Shell. Conduit shall be installed from the forming shell to a suitable junction box or other enclosure located as provided in 680.24. Conduit shall be rigid metal, intermediate metal, liquidtight flexible nonmetallic, or rigid nonmetallic.
(a) Metal Conduit. Metal conduit shall be approved and shall be of brass or other approved corrosion-resistant metal.
(b) Nonmetallic Conduit. Where a nonmetallic conduit is used, an 8 AWG insulated solid or stranded copper equipment grounding conductor shall be installed in this conduit unless a listed low-voltage lighting system not requiring grounding is used. The equipment grounding conductor shall be terminated in the forming shell, junction box or transformer enclosure, or ground-fault circuit-interrupter enclosure. The termination of the 8 AWG equipment grounding conductor in the forming shell shall be covered with, or encapsulated in, a listed potting compound to protect the connection from the possible deteriorating effect of pool water.
Handbook comment
Where rigid nonmetallic conduit or liquidtight flexible nonmetallic conduit is used between a forming shell for a wet-niche fixture and a junction box or other enclosure, an 8 AWG insulated copper equipment grounding conductor is required to be installed in the conduit to provide electrical continuity between the forming shell and the junction box or other enclosure. The conduit must be sized large enough to enclose both the 8 AWG insulated copper bonding conductor and the approved flexible cord that supplies the wet-niche fixture, to facilitate easy withdrawal and insertion of the grounding conductor and the cord. Low-voltage lighting systems are exempt from this equipment gounding conductor requirement.