The things that make me think this could be right are:
When he signed we were told that it was possible because of the link up with Atlanta and their scouting
""It shows you where we are with our collaboration with Atlanta at the minute," McInnes said. "Once we were speaking with their recruitment team it was a player who they were aware of and had flagged up on their system.
"Jointly we got to know him a bit better. Atlanta have several Venezuelan players and contacts and that allowed us to make inroads into the possibility of bringing him to Aberdeen."
Also McInnes recent comments about being confident of recouping the investment
" I think we have to be fair to the boy, and if there is an opportunity, and we think there will be, to recoup the money invested then that money will come back."
McInnes isn't dumb enough to think he's worth £800k on the market, so there's clearly something else.
Maybe there were options in there, and had he turned out to be a superstar Atlanta would still be giving us £800k and not a penny more. I don't know.
I agree, if we haven't lost out, then there's no issue.
I'd go further though, if we can access players we otherwise couldn't with innovative deal structures, why not give it a shot. If one in three works out that would be grand.