When I initially posted this question, it happens that the @example
tag was not implemented (yet) in PHPDocumentor v2. This is an unfortunate truth for a number of tags as PHPDocumentor v2 is built on top of a completely different foundation than v1, and tags were/are still being ported to the new system.
Shortly after I posted the question I checked in with the Git community working on the project and contributed a little to the task of implementing the @example
tag.
At this time, the tag works as expected and defined in the PHPDoc documentation, to the T (so far as I can test).
http://www.phpdoc.org/docs/latest/references/phpdoc/tags/example.html
It does occur to me that, as this now works as expected, this question (and answer) are likely no longer needed. However I wanted to make sure that I updated it lest someone stumble upon it and become confused.
For completeness sake, at the time of writing, the syntax executes as follows:
/**
* @example [location] [<start-line> [<number-of-lines>] ] [<description>]
*/
/**
* Or inline {@example [location] [<start-line> [<number-of-lines>] ] [<description>]}
*/