I don't take issue with any thing you've said.
The issue is that many - including OVP - took Wilson's statement as a claim of the kind of official directive or official request you are saying this is not. He didn't say that. He said that OVP asked CIA for more information, and CIA sent him to Niger. He never said OVP asked CIA to send him to Niger. It just didn't happen. Yet that contention was the basis for having to "rebut" his "inaccurate" statement.
Cheney may well have been surprised that CIA handled it this way. But that doesn't mean that what Wilson said about how CIA handled it is inaccurate. In fact, the statement quoted by Howlin' is pretty much how everyone involved says it happened.
What is the time line for the CIA's arranging for Wilson to go to Niger and for when Cheney asked for more information? 'Seems that I read that Wilson was contacted about the trip a day or so before Cheney asked for info.