And not just mice, but mice engineered with “T1D like” conditions. Human testing too early is certainly undesirable but these studies with mice, while necessary and important, are nothing newsworthy for the general public (but good for fundraising for follow up work).
She was on immunosuppressants, so how long the new beta cells would last without those is still an open question. Other similar, ongoing trials are showing promising results.
Not if it requires immune suppressants. They can already transplant whole pancreases. They rarely do because the resulting lifetime of immune suppression is worse than the quite effective insulin injections.
Any research could pay big benefits eventually but this is far from "great news". It's a step forward along a path that is actually well behind the others.
I think you and I have a different approach to science.
I see research as not entirely linear and think that multiple paths should be funded. Most paths won't be "the definitive answer" but add capability, or definitively rule out an approach, that can be used in other scenarios. TheFineArticle shows a different path to the others and they made a great step on it - that seems like money well spent to me.
What I get from reading your post is that it's some kind of race and only the one currently winning should be lauded. I'm not sure if that is what you intend to communicate though.