"Near miss" isn't "nearly a miss" - it's a miss where both parties were near each other. "Near hit" may actually make more logical sense though.

Not in any definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_miss_%28safety%29

"near miss" just means "that was close", or "we almost didn't miss" -- in other words, "we missed, but we were pretty damn close and could have collided".

It doesn't mean "nearly missed, but actually hit" -- check any dictionary.