Not necessarily. Procedure for buying firearms online now is to have them shipped to a local FFL holder, usually a gun shop or pawn shop that also does guns. They run the NICS check and process the 4473 for a nominal fee. Seller, if not an FFL themselves, ships through a similar shop in their local area. Pretty sure Daniel Defense is an FFL, so can ship and on their own.
All that you said CAN happen.
But it didn’t
What did happen is that he went to a local dealer.