Surely if that's the case then a character stand cannot have ANY of the attributes of the unit it represents - so assault marine librarians can't have jump packs, Shining Spear exarchs can't have skimmer, lance and so on and so forth. I've gotta say, that just doesn't make any sense.

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numquam culum es

Not so.

These special attributes are listed in the notes section of the unit entry and so apply.  Lance for the shining spears and first strike for the banshees appear as part of the weapon's special rules and so do not apply to the exarchs.

ah, okay, got my knickers crossed (is that the right metaphor?). Didn't realise that the Banshee's first strike was a weapon attribute, though that obviously makes sense

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numquam culum es

It's not well-written.  Instead of "FF value" it should have said "the weapon's small arms attack" or "basic FF attack" or something like that.  When the text was originally written, it was only on units that had no Extra Attacks.  In fact, it was written because the units had no Extra Attacks and the rulebook only discussed macroweapon assault attacks in the context of Extra Attack ability.

It became the standard explanatory text before anyone realized the confusion it would cause when adding EA.

There is an attempted clarification in the FAQ.  With emphasis added:
Q: Some abilities can apply to either a
unit or a weapon. How does this work
when a unit is carrying a weapon with
such an ability?
A: While the special abilities are generally
categorized into “Specialist Unitsâ€Â

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Neal