PAS Just for Metal Detectorists Now?

When the Portable Antiquities Scheme was set up it was meant to be for recording finds made by the public as a whole. Today it seems some FLOs are pushing the message that it is there only to service artefact hunting. I commented on a misleadingly phrased tweet put out by the Museum in my home town. The institution now defends what it had written in the following terms:

ColchesterMuseums ‏@ColMuseums 4 godz.4 godziny temu @PortantIssues 1/2 The photo was taken as part of a special event organised with the PAS @findsorguk We receive donations from many sources

So, if it was 'organized with the PAS' back in Bloomsbury, this was reason to invite just artefact hunters to a special showing? How come? Do dog walkers not donate objects any more?

Tweeting about the metal detectorists was just another way of saying to the 58 million people in the PAS audience that artefact hunting and private collecting by a small minority (16k people?) are kosher - without giving the other side of the story (and that has nothing to do with how many are "reported" or even "donated"). Are you able these days to even begin to tell the other side of the story Colchester Museum?