I don't see any of the three here.
Ability - Was this poorly dressed and marked surveyor armed? No evidence of that
Opportunity - If the homeowner stayed in their house and waited for authorities to arrive there would be no opportunity
Intent - Clearly there was no intent here
Actually, all three were present.
Ability - a person of reasonable size and strength can do severe bodily harm. A person with military training, as this person claimed, knows enough to be able to hurt you badly.
Opportunity - He was physically close enough to be able to act.
Intent - Speech is enough, threatening someone is actually assault, but this person lunged - made a physical move.
All three were present.
Further, and this is really important, you must base your assessment only on what was known to the person in the moment. Not on what you know now. So, we all know that this trespasser was working for a cable company. The homeowner did not know that.
So, to your specific assessments, here is where each one of them is wrong.
Ability - does not require a weapon. It never requires a weapon. It only requires physical ability. Someone stating that they have served in the military serves to reinforce this ability to inflict server bodily harm or death.
Opportunity - Some states have a “duty to retreat” - meaning that if there is a conflict, as there was here, that the party that feels threatened must retreat from the situation. In that case, going back inside the house would be required. But this state doesn’t have a duty to retreat. So, by going out to ask the cable guy what he was doing, the homeowner was acting in a reasonable and legal manner. There is no law or principle in this case that requires him to hide in his house when someone is on his property.
The decision to hide in your house, call the cops, and wait (for an indeterminate amount of time in this case, as the Sheriff said they couldn’t come) is a personal one. I support you if you choose to do that. I support this homeowners decision to leave his house and ask the cable guy what he was doing.
Intent - a physical move, or statement that places you in fear of your life. Well, lunging is enough. More than enough. Stating that they are going to hurt somebody is enough. That was absolutely present.
So, all three - clearly present.
And, as I pointed out above, clearly present in the mind of a reasonable person, not you, per se, but a reasonable person in the same situation, knowing only what the person knew at the time.
What’s really interesting, to me, about this case was the declaration of the cable guy that he was Chechen and served in their military. What was the point of that? The only explanation appears to be intimidation. The cable guy wanted to intimidate the homeowner. Instead of explaining, or proving, what he was doing, he chose intimidation. An odd choice.
That might work in Chechnya. Does’t really fly in North Carolina.