Well, they weren't wrong when they said it might be difficult for any one person to find the method to get the Simulant, it probably takes a couple of devs to sign off on allowing us to proceed with the quest.
It has to suck being one of those people who spent every bit of their waking hours trying to solve the mystery without any indication from Bungie that the way forward was time locked.
On an aside, the rank 2 roll for the Thesan FR4 seems like a god roll for a fusion rifle:
- Hot Swap, Accelerated Coils/Braced Frame, Rangefinder
The Thesan FR4 was already strong as a baseline, this is just over the top.