Your confusion is understandable, Doug - all the lingo used here makes it VERY confusing for sure! But yes, trunk or tail doesn't matter in the "rating" JV and I do.
It gets even more confusing when people say to me "I hear you're a course rater - how does that work?" which for whatever reason I do get all the time. Given I also do the highly subjective side for Golf Digest, to answer honestly I have to reply "which kind?"... it's very tempting to just say, nah, that's not me...
TH