Anyhow, even if Marc Shapiro was right, the Ran on Sanhedrin is still a Rishon.
It’s more than that. Even if Marc Shapiro is right, what he really means is that the ran is not the person who was called rabeinu nissim.
The ran is whomever wrote the peirush that we call the ran. It doesn’t really matter if he is the same rishon as rabbeinu nissim or another rishon, and it doesn’t matter if his name was nissim or charlie. It matters that he wrote the ran.