I'm posting the top down photo, but I'm linking to it since it needs to be high res in photo form to be seen. This is why I didn't want to post the top down since people will say "lol that's it?". What has to be kept in mind is.
1. This is after a few moments of friction applied, now not as much force would be used as often, but over two weeks would definitely have an effect.
2. Compare the two sticks. Stark contrast between the two.
3. Similar to the original photo you can see an outline of the thumb albeit much smaller.
4. In taking the picture I noticed on the bottom of the stick in question near the edge it appears almost like a scratch, when in reality it's like a bunching of the material(rubber) that is eroding away, very similar to the picture in the OP, pretty much killing the "he scratched it!" debate, at least IMO.
5. Finally the biggest difference is one stick still has a shine to it, the other appears dull, I'm assuming it's from losing the top few layers of rubber.
Take from it what you will, I'm not panicking, my problem is simply with the ridiculous reponses in here without even giving it a second thought. I believe there is a good chance that this becomes a problem for a fair amount of people and fully expect a lot more cases to start popping up. I'm desperately hoping I'm wrong.
http://i.imgur.com/eNh7kDx.jpg