Note that the kink that the ruler is sitting on is below the crackles. And looking at the side pictures it's quite obvious that the fork leg starts out as a constant width upper portion then transitions to a tapered lower portion. All your latest pictures show the fork to be just fine. I'm still sticking to this being a paint bond failure issue. Note how the one part is chipped out cleanly almost like a wall tile that came loose and fell out. Get into that spot with a small knife blade and I'll bet you can lift away a lot more paint that is only semi held on to the base metal. I'm not seeing anything to support a collision being the cause. Even the steer tube is nicely canted forward as it should be in the one picture.