[FarMcKon]

I read all the articles. I didn't see any mentioning red tape, or regulations.* All that talk of 'regulations' and 'red tape' is a guess.

This stink of a "Low priority project use as a place-holder, but as soon as even a mouse-sneeze comes up, the resources are put to a better used, and it is kicked down the road"

But (as you say) we are all pre-trained to assume 'red tape / regulations' so we back-fill that explanation, even with no evidence.

*(I Wouldn't mind a second reader, read them fast and searched, may have missed something.)