Do I understand that the anti-gemmata "front" believes the species to be in sect. Amanita, but NOT gemmata. Or do they simply take a negative position such as "I don't know what it is, but it is NOT gemmata"?
Current European literature applies the name gemmata to taxa with caps ranging from yellow (much of western Europe) to yellow with an orange disc (e.g., southern France and Italy), cream to tan with a brown disc (southern France & Italy) to tan (Scandinavia) to white (Turkey). I have personal experience with material fitting the first, fourth, and fifth types and have seen illustrations of the others. In all cases, the spore shape reported is about the same. Neville and Poumarat (2004) show a very wide range of bulb shape as did Parrot (back in the 60s). Notice how different the cap colors are in the N&P photographs as compared to the N&P reproductions of prints from older books. The bulb is pointed in the lectotype of A. gemmata, but not in the lectotype of junquillea. Gillet's plate shows a pointed bulb, the bulb illustrated by Lange is less pointed, but not rounded. Etc.
In comparing gemmata with eliae, Gilbert (1941: 264) says "Bulbe sourvent pointu." Gilbert's plate of gemmata f. amici shows a pointed bulb.
Rudolf Veselý (Atlas de champignons d'Europe, fasc. 3, 1934: 38) illustrates a variety of bulb forms for "junquillea."
M. Traverso (Il genere Amanita in Italia, 1998: 119) shows a conical point on the bulb of his gemmata.
A. Marchand (Champignons du nord et du midi, vol. I, 1971: 3) mentions a pointed bulb as a form present in gemmata. [Among the European books of the first 3/4 of the 20th Century, this one is among those notable for the fact that the spore measurements are reproducible.]
It seems possible that there is more than one taxon in Europe included in the current range of the gemmata concept. I would hope anybody tackling this problem will not rely only bulb shape (seems to be very variable) or color. Habitat could certainly play a role with a more pointed bulb in sandy Mediterranean region (for example). There may be variations in spore shape that are not evident unless one first considers local populations separately. I really have no idea what to expect in the final outcome.
I now stand aside to see what happens next.