Even their advice if the flowchart says its interesting is to send pictures next, not send it in.
My own behavior, if I sent pictures and they said "yes, that might be a meteorite" would be to arrange to bring it in in person, sometime.
Mailing it blindly doesn't seem like it should be anyone's first instinct, but they certainly aren't saying anyone should do that.
> Mailing it blindly doesn't seem like it should be anyone's first instinct,
Mailing it blindly? If you first contacted a university researcher asking about a rock and they said "sure send it to me and I'll check it out", and then kept your rock without telling you upfront they would keep it, you would be in good company. A whole lot of people have lost neat artifacts like this. Not just meteorites of course; crystals, fossils, archeological finds. Basically anything you think a scientist might find interesting, the scientist will keep for themselves for the same reason.