I too am amazed at how vehement some can be as to what something 'is' (which I and others are often accused of, I understand...) without putting it to the test.
Well they are coming out of the woodwork on the comments thread in the National Geographic article recently posted about 2-2-V-1:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141104-amelia-earhart-forensic-photo-spectral-imaging-analysis/
"Their" commitment to winning the PR battle is relentless and impressive.
It is a nice article.
We shouldn't be upset with the comments. Although many deviate from it, healthy critical debate is a fine thing. But I'm afraid you are right - so much of this is about nothing more than wishing to dampen what is perceived as splash enjoyed by another. Maybe in some cases it is someone else wishing for more splash of their own (and slight apologies to 'splashed-n-sank').
The utterly hilarious part of that to me is that NO ONE is going to drive a stake through the heart of this mystery short of AIRPLANE ON THE DECK: if someone believes they have a better idea, then go sell the idea, instead of trying to de-sell the other guy's idea. When I see so much negative energy going into these things it suggests to me that we're actually seeing a lack of 'sellability' of someone else's idea, if you will. I'm sure that much of it is no more than the ordinary cosmic static that the internet generates - there are always armchair naysayers for everything from aspirin to zebra stripes. But I also don't doubt that at least some of it is 'competitively driven', even if only by a few who find alternate theories more to their liking.
All of which also tells me that there are no better ideas floating around, or those who are busy thus would be busy at their own workshop and their followers would be preoccupied with those pursuits.
In a way, that is pitiable - maybe the public can't get as excited about going out to look at a few square miles of ocean floor as theorized by a navigation guru, etc. as they can about the idea of Earhart washing up on Gardner, tantalizingly close to her destination, but with no cigar box - only
maybe a long lost sextant box, but having left (possibly) other tidbits lying about.
Backing off and looking at the whole thing as best I can - biases and all, it is just odd how the emotions run wild in this - and yet I too have that same bug somehow. It's just too bad that we cannot all build more of a community-minded idea for the search... but I guess human nature gets in the way - berries don't get picked without some sense of competition, it seems.
Oh well, maybe Earhart herself wouldn't be surprised that humans are about as mired in the negative as they tended to be when she left Lae in 1937. I wonder if she'd ever have made that flight if she'd of taken her ques from the naysayers of her day? I'm sure there were plenty. She failed - and many of those who search will fail too - including possibly us, ultimately. But the glory is in the effort.
Wouldn't it be great if those who differ simply went on and applied that energy in a search instead of finding fault with others? Me included, I must try harder.