I think it is likely to be somewhere in between the two; that compromise between hope and dismay that we call “content”, and sometimes “beauty”.

This. And don’t forget that Jochi was not actually even sure that the prion was responsible after decades of study. Admittedly, he was one person studying it alone, but he did have the support/help of ship which you would think would be at least equivalent to a modern lab.

You claim they give up and choose the easy option and yet you also claim that the easy option was stupid because it was too difficult. Very consistent.