The discussion so far seems to assume that all honeycomb cells will be
built the same size and shape, which they are not, except on foundation,
and even then, not always.

I am sorry, but you are not giving much credit to either the observers or the bees themselves. Of course, we observe the fact that bees do not build comb with extreme regularity. The irregularity is created by the bees in their effort to A) create as many uniform cells as possible in a given space; b) economize the use of valuable wax. We have often seen the crazy mess they make trying to do this.

They frequently are forced to improvise, compromise, etc. However, the irregularity certainly cannot be used to assert that the cells are arising from surface tension. Anyone who has attempted to build a structure using an architect's plan, knows things have to be changed in order to make the plan work in the real world. 

The honey comb is a structure which is produced by thousands of individuals using a few very simple rules. You can observe this yourself on a frame. They often start with just one cell, just in the example I gave of wasp comb. Once this is formed, the other cells are built off of the interstices. If two groups start on two parts of the bar (which is often the case) they make two oval shaped combs. The two combs usually do not mesh together neatly, having been started separately. 

Of course, much of the same phenomena can be observed naturally occurring in fluids. That simply cannot be used as evidence that the wax is behaving as a fluid. There are plenty of other observations which suggest that the bees are constructing planar structures using small amounts of wax they have made pliable using salivary secretions. If the bees raised the temperature to a liquid, the whole thing would collapse from the weight of the festooning bees.

Pete

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