Yes, 2012 was the year Nearmap was acquired by Ipernica, prior...

Yes, 2012 was the year Nearmap was acquired by Ipernica, prior to that there would be no publicly available financial info, and it was founded as a small private company in 2008. Any financial info for ASX Nea prior to 2012 does not include Nea it's purely Ipernica and its predecessor.
From memory 2012 was the year Ipernica ditched its IP business and focused solely on Nearmap and was also the year they put up the pay wall, and that is when it started growing revenue. Any financial data prior to 2012 has nothing to do with Nearmap.

And that is my point 'it seems to be a benchmarking tool for research analysts / posters here' I do not think it should be.

This is all my view of course, and I am a layman when it comes to this sphere, however my feeling is that Pointerra and Nearmap are compared because of previosly shared board members, and a bit of a crossover in their target market. However, their financial trajectories are markedly different. Nearmap attracted a broad market immediately (as a result of it's history with no paywall), and Pointerra seems to have a very narrow uptake to date. I hope for yours and other shareholders sakes it broadens and deepens soon.

It appears to my uneducated eye, very useful technology, I just question the companies ability to attract enough of the right customers to deliver meaningful revenue.