I need a favour from the group ... can you go into SuiteIdeas and vote for #724340 Request to get BETA record in REST API to GA (record type-VendorCredit)? Thanks!

are you writing your own as a workaround? I've been kinda curious what the use cases for using this API vs just writing your own is. I haven't run across anyone actually using it yet.

We've done some many types of integrations, we're exploring a completely external solution

That's the route i'd go. Doesn't answer your question at all more of a curiosity.