[KittenInABox]

I'm aware of that and, to my bafflement, the paper isn't even that bad! It looks like fairly bog-standard "huh, ok" work. I have no idea why it would be requested to be retracted completely with no ability to simply revise/resubmit or to allow the academic peer review procedure, a move that from what I understand from other googlers is completely out of line with the norm there.

This whole thing is a confusing mess.