You guys need to go back to physics class: yes, Brandt too.
Not at all, but maybe a lesson on how to communicate clearly w/o using excess terminology would have been useful.
Spokes are tensile members and are unable to take compressive load.
True, no one is arguing that point - when a spoke is seen as a separate element.
The bottom spokes do nothing to resist vertical load on the hub.
You're missing a key feature: Wheels are pre-stressed structures. (in vertical) their dominant reaction to load is by losing some of their pre-tension. The only place on a wheel where you can readily measure a change between with axle loading and w/o axle loading is on the spokes directly underneath the hub.
So although it's questionable in terms of literature and language the engineering perspective is clear, the hub stands on the lost pre-tension in the bottom spokes.