...but the Japanese asteroid probe by...a supposedly bungled 1st attempt...may have
regardless collected a sample of asteroid material ALREADY.

How?

We know know [though Jim Oberg has not updated Hayabusa status of late]
that Hayabusa DID LAND on the asteroid TWICE.
And we now know that the sample collector door/hatch WAS OPEN
at the time of both landings.
The spacecraft landed on the asteroid at a very slow pace [4cm/sec].
Was that slow speed enough to kick up some dust, in micro-G, that drifted into the open
sample-collector door/hatch?

NEVERTHELE3SS:
Hayabusa has achieved some SPACE FIRSTS:
(1) The first imaging of a manmade object on an asteroid: the beacon/marker.
(2) Hayabusa became the first spacecraft to liftoff and depart an asteroid
it landed on.
(3) JAXA became the first space agency to land two seperate objects on an asteroid.

Take that, America!.... Catch up!