Fight: how literal is "my Ob = extra successes for you?"

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
1

BWG, bottom of page 440:

Versus Test Disadvantage
When making a versus test, add any obstacle penalties that you’re suffering to your opponent’s roll. Thus if you’re at a +1 Ob disadvantage, you add one success to your opponent’s roll.
Does that literally mean to add them as successes for all purposes? Or is it just a quickie trick for calculating stuff?

For example:

You and I are fighting, polearm vs. sword. I get in close (with a Charge or something) to put you at +3 Ob disadvantage. For our next action, you’ve got Strike scripted and I’ve got Block. (Say you opt not to choke up or punch me because you really need the VA of your actual weapon.) We both roll garbage and end up with 0 raw successes on each side. Does that mean I get to treat it like a 3-over Block?

(Or say we both get 1 raw success.)

2

The opponent of the penalized character doesn’t get to actually add successes. You just need to meet your Ob penalty before your successes start counting gainst your opponent.

In your example, 0 successes means 0 successes. But, you would need to get those first 3 successes to beat your penalty before you’d start comparing your Strike to the Block. If that makes sense. The nice thing is that you get to count it as an Ob 3 test for advancement, rather than an Ob 0.