To be honest wherever you look there are questionable statements. I remember when I bought the original video cassettes for Season 1, Paulie Walnuts was already being described as one of Tony's capos -- he was still a soldier, though.
Equally, and this may just be my poor knowledge of the show (I've only seen Season 1-4) the plot regarding De Meo (spelling),(the original boss)at the time Jackie Aprile was Acting Boss was never satisfactorally resolved.
Did De Meo die?
The family is actually called the De meo crime family. The Soprano's are just a crew. At the time jackie is make acting boss, de meo is serving life, they never answer why Jr. and then Tony are the boss and not the acting boss.
Actually I thought the Ercoli DiMeo/Official Boss plotline was a great touch, reflecting the "Acting" designations applied to numerous modern day LCN families, where the "official" boss is a guy doing life far removed from day to day op's, but still nominally "in charge".
Also, I think the term "street boss" shows that Tony was considered the acting boss anyway by the feds, especially once Jackie had actually died.
