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Jimgolf,
I think the answer to all of your questions is "it depends."
NFHS wants to offer as standard of a product as is possible around the country. For the most part, the officials I work with try to do that. We try to enforce the rules along with spirit and intent. In other words, I don't know any good officials who call a lot of "3-in-the-key" violations because they know the spirit and intent of the rule. The spirit and intent is to keep a player from gaining an advantage by getting a position close the basket and not moving from it (especially a player who has post position or is getting rebounding position). On the other hand, I have a problem with an official who ignores the NFHS rule that says we should call a PC foul if an offensive player blasts a defender who has legal guarding position under the hoop. The intent of that rule is that every player is entitled to a spot on the floor so an official who calls that a block is deciding on their own to use college rules in an NFHS game. To me, that is wrong.
As far as assignor's go... I do not work college ball for an "all powerful" assignor who completely controls my schedule. If I did, I'm sure that I would just do what he/she instructed even if I felt it directly contradicated NCAA rules. Anytime one person has absolute power, it creates an environment where the worker bees know they should just shut up and do what they are told.
Our HS assignor reports to our board and is given assigning guidelines based on a peer-based rating system so his power is limited. Besides, I've been around long enough that I'm not afraid to tell our assignor when he's wrong. I'm tactful so as not to embarrass him, but he hasn't read a rulebook in about 15 years so I have to "straighten him" out a couple times a year so that he doesn't give misinformation to our young refs and screw them up from the get-go.
Z
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