For the record: it's not backwards, the CS rep had it right, at least based on what I was talking about. I think the disconnect is I was talking Win 10, you were talking earlier version regarding the main reading app. On Windows 10, it's the Nook for PC app that you download from the Windows store and is linked on the BN Nook apps page.

I was just gifted a card from my fellow coworkers. So despite not wanting to buy from them anymore and haven't bought from them in years, I just had a firsthand experience of create an account, buy a book, install the app on Win10. This is the app that installs, the NOOK app from the Windows store.

Using this app, and the Calibre plugin, I browsed to the local BN folder as someone posted in the thread, the books import easily just as from Amazon or any of the other apps like Kobo, ADE. It looks like the issue is on earlier versions mainly. I doubt this experience will turn around my opinion of BN. But in the interest of honest reporting--buying and DeDRM'ing an ebook went pretty smoothly.