> My thought would be that with HATEAOS, any client connecting to the
> system during this work flow would have all the information the need
> returned from the server to participate in that flow, regardless of
> how they joined it.
Why do you think so? Why should a client have this knowledge? If I have a shopping cart on the client side for example, and there is my favorite energy drink in it, why should the client care about all the history how the drink came into the car or how many others already bought that drink and such resulted in the current stock size? In fact the client only cares for *his own* state, not the state of the server sided resource.
> I must download the dissertation again and reread it, but I don't see
> anyone talking about RESOURCE state, only APPLICATION state.
Exactly! Since it is of no interest *why* the RESOURCE is in that state, so you just can ignore it in most scenarios.