yes to your first point.
But not the second. The system "purportedly" does not compare to central database but only locally to the ID presented and the face in front of the camera. Since the comparison data is only what is presented right there at the TDC station there should be no system lag nor ability for hackers to interfere nor for someone to "play around" with the photos and name matches.
"Purportedly" because in TSA does have access to central biometric databases which include FRT data and I do not trust them anymore than I can throw an elephant. And we know during this pilot phase they are keeping collected data to evaluate accuracy of the system. It is no tech challenge at all for them to move to doing a triple check of the local data against central data.