I do indeed agree everyone was a bit too quick to dismiss it in 2016.
In 2019 when the second thread was created there was already quite a bit more evidence, and people had in general more reasonable responses due to that: www.elitefourum.com/t/pre-base-set-test-print-prototype-blastoise/23779/1. There were still similar responses as last time that immediately dismissed it, but also an actual discussion and good questions. Although in the end it was still locked because some of our questions about dot patterns and such weren’t answered, and the owner primarily tried to sell it.
And then in December 2020 we finally had answers to those questions we asked a year prior, and I wrote that article in response to put it all in a single timeline.
With the exception of it being a bit too quickly dismissed in 2016, I agree with @fourthstartcg though: the way this entire history and evidence unfolded was reasonable. Unlike the MTG community where a lot of WotC employees are well-known sources of information, we as Pokémon community like to see hard evidence, since we only have ~10 known test prints in the total 25 years the Pokémon TCG exists. The communities are simply different.
Anyway, I’m repeating myself. All this is already in the main article, as well as the other comments. 
Greetz,
Quuador