I think that this happens a lot more than people realize, which is why I was saying that, if you really want an idea of efficacy, you need to look at your rate of flats more so than tallying evidence of punctures.

I wish that I had taken a picture at the time, but in late Dec, when I was visiting my in-laws in VA, I got back from a ride and looked at my rear tire. Like yours, it had more than 2k miles on it and was close to EOL, but the interesting bit was that on the side of the tire facing me, there were half a dozen little cuts with wet spots surrounding them. The shoulders down there were pretty gritty, but that was surprising.