Yeah honestly I think your idea here is much more probable. If the alien stuff is real, they’re going to want to be able to own it and profit from it, first and foremost. It makes some sense that if they still can’t figure it out or reverse engineer it (not unlikely right?), then continue to keep it secret until they have full control of it.
I keep thinking back to the removal of the eminent domain over non-human technology that was removed from the Schumer amendment. Why the hell remove it, or am i missing something? I feel like that should’ve gotten way more people taking this seriously. What are they trying to say, “we don’t have alien stuff now, but if we ever do get some in the future, we want to keep it!”. BS.
Also my cynical take on the public waking up from this is probably unlikely, at least short term, an if at all long term. Even if we got full disclosure, maybe a few weeks of headlines, water cooler conversations at the office, then back to normal. I think I just want something like this to wake the public up to things like wealth inequality and stuff but in actuality it probably wouldn’t.