Yes, but again: that is not possible with a binary proposition. Mutually-exclusive things don’t work that way. And yes, the positions taken among the Clades were pretty clearly ‘bring them in’, ‘ignore them’, and ‘kill them’. The Overminds and their minions pretty clearly represent the position of ‘how do we subject this idea to Cladistic proving? Well, clearly some of us would have to bring them in.’ Can’t test the viability of bringing them in without, you know, bringing them in.
Also, still digging through ARC posts, it’s a long day of meetings, unfortunately, so there’s things consuming my attention. But I haven’t forgotten.
The author certainly is… but yes, I think even she meant that as wit, not real scholarship.