Let's assume that all these thousands of 'mini-experiments' are statistically independent. So we can pretend we're doing lots and lots of experiments with 1-photon states. The mathematics of the approximation came up briefly before on this newgroup. A coherent state is a superposition of n-photon states for various n. But of course, it's a long road from the palace of theory to the supermarket of experiment.
Experiment is another story.
My discussion was intended to show that bringing these distinctions to the surface of experiment is not so easy. Or Rube Goldberg device, depending on your preference in comics.