How is it a fallacious argument? You cannot guarantee any travel is going to go as planned. See the trail runners caught with their pants down earlier this summer...or without proper gear for what could happen that did happen. Based on your reading of this, I do not need a canister to do Mt. Whitney via the MMWT based your reading of the rules all I need to do is not follow my itinerary then make up a story, if stopped by a LE ranger.
If you pass through areas with canister requirement you need to have a canister. You cannot guarantee you are not going to be forced to overnight there...by weather, illness or injury.
I have been told this multiple times by multiple people at multiple ranger stations/visitor centers over multiple years in the Inyo. Based on that I have tendency to believe what I have been saying to be true.
