Why couldn’t they? Everyone loved adaptive triggers, and they go and implement them themselves in their games. They created the drivers and APIs to use the controller, they created the controller, of course they can just go and implement it themselves.
I don't think Sony is really super involved in BB at all.
If the USP was a novel implementation of the Dualsense and Sony just took a look, turned down the company then implemented the same idea themselves they’d open themselves up for a lawsuit regardless of the fact they created the controllers etc.
This is standard practice. Companies can‘t look at potential products and then implement aspects of it without some sort of arrangement with the originator.
I had a pal in acquisitions who told me a big part of the job was sending back, unopened, unsolicited pitches from companies looking to sign up with his publisher in order to minimise the chance of a developer saying “ you saw our pitch and stole our idea”.
You might say this is a ridiculously paranoid approach but most companies would rather not be hit with lawsuits, frivolous or not.
Im not saying the scenario I put forward is the case with BB. It does seem strange that they’ve had a Sony reveal trailer, a Sony blogpost and a dedicated app for their game especially seeing their past history (Although credit where it’s due, their last batch of screens on their Steam early access page when it was a 3rd person game did show hints of promise.) and despite all the speculation Sony haven't said a word.