I think they were clear enough. The machine code is the source code (despite the claim to the contrary.) It's that premise that is rightly rejected. As a result

I think they were clear enough. The machine code is the source code (despite the claim to the contrary.) It's that premise that is rightly rejected. As a result of that cheating, this program is also nothing like actual quines. A C program that reverse engineered itself by reading its own machine code is also not a quibe, to be clear.