What I've been told, is that the "2N3055" part number has
been used by some manufacturer as a sort of "dumping
ground" for transistors from quite a number of different
fabrication processes, that didn't test out well enough to
meet the specs of their intended purpose.

It's no surprise a company would sell low-spec devices with a different part
number. What is surprising in this case is that the devices don't use the
same fabrication process, and aren't part of a numerical series (2N3053,
2N3054, 2N3055).