Here's a suggestion. Turn the lens around and look through it from the other end using the camera ... :ROTFL:
My 70-200 also has the slight marks on the plastic baffle. The marks themselves are apparently production flaws from the casting of the piece and not due to mechanical faults, threads binding/tearing or any other such physical issue. The information I got from Nikon was that there should also be no particles loose inside the lens because nothing is in contact with the baffle (it's not a thread and these aren't shards) and the flaws are in the moulding. Part of the problem also is that you have to tilt and view the baffle through the front element - this magnifies significantly the internal parts plus you are also then looking at any dust on the front element (again it seems the more I look at it, the dustier my front element becomes).
Almost certainly Nikon will fix whatever quality issue they have with that baffle so that it doesn't have any visual flaws. Unfortunately a whole bunch of people have convinced themselves that the lens is now 'bad' ... perhaps good news for those others out there who might be able to pick up these 'bad' copies at a discount and still shoot with a wickedly sharp VR lens that will operate identically to any 'new' & 'improved' update.
In the meantime I'm going to enjoy using my lens. I could care less about resale because, quite frankly, I'm very happy with the lens and see no reason to sell it. If subsequently any problems do occur with the lens then I'll get Nikon to fix it under my 5 year warranty.
/cont 'Help, the sky is falling ...'