Most self-reported aphantasics also reported weak or absent auditory imagery

What makes you think so?

I have a close friend who does have what you describe here, being able to create a manipulatable model of underground formations from a seismic map, floating above his desk, AR like.

As this stuff is almost impossible to prove or disprove, what we are left with is either trusting someone when they self report OR assuming everyone uses our own way of thinking (from a self standpoint).

I think the later is quite egotistical in nature, and obviously incorrect when applied to physical attributes, so I'd rather go with the former personally.

Interesting. The correlation is not 100% according to the study, but it does seem to be related, somehow. Strangely, I've read for a while ~40% of the population has audio recall/echoic recall, which doesn't seem to match up with this latest study. I think it's maybe hard to study this stuff because of the nature of what is being discussed. Many times I've asked someone who seems to be an aphant, that they report they can "see" something in mind, simply because they think that's how it's referred to with words. In reality, aphants simply don't see anything at all, but know what it looks like. So then later an aphant will admit they don't actually create and see the image in mind. At least, that's how I put it. And I don't do audio recall either.