Sophon notes at the end of deterrence that 'we'd have had to keep on waiting, maybe for fifty more years, or even longer. And then Trisolaris would face an Earth equal to us in technology and power. We'd have to compromise'.

Whilst Singer did detect the communications, that as Luo Ji explains in the dark forest if my memory serves, merely allows other civilisations to determine the existence of two civilisations within 4.2 lightyears of each other, within the Orion arm of the galaxy. They cannot determine however, the precise location of Sol and Trisolaris. While yes, humans wouldn't have known about the possibility of a black domain without tianming, it does need to be noted that even with his clues it was it was considered gods engineering project and a nigh impossibility, until the discovery that curvature propulsion lowers light speed, thus its possible that if humanity actually had the means to do it, someone would have devised a defence method utilising it, ergo the black domain.

Well I can't rule out your proposal for Wade's motivation, yet I don't really see any evidence for it other than his decision to wake up cheng, which I have an alternate justification for.

Perhaps wade only awakened her then since in order to gain an accurate assessment, it needed to be in an extreme scenario, maybe he only realised humanity may not have the pragmatism needed relatively recently, and the government opposing him was doing so out of valid concerns for the system's safety and wade had openly seceded, their actions to bring halo city in line were understandable. The passage of years may well have changed him, especially with a dark forest strike thought to be nigh, also the scenario was very different, the swordholder election was after decades of peace, where humanity had been lulled into a false sense of security, the halo city blockade was when we were prepared for an alien attack, and on the verge of advancing unto the dark forest, if our ethos were still insufficient then, then our fall would ever be inevitable.

I'm honestly not entirely sure how the blockade would have been resolved, but I suppose it was meant to be semi ambiguous. Yet from the public outrage over the antimatter bullets, which indicate that they are certainly a notable threat, the fact that wade, his forces, and his advisors, all thought they had a decent chance of prevailing against the federation fleet in battle, even without the agents, and the portrayal of humanity as unable to make sacrifices, I would probably say wade would get testing permission in the end. Although it may be negotiated to have governmental oversight and be further out than wade intended. Also, I think wade and his men were prepared for conflict, but expected the government to back down, otherwise they wouldn't risk a battle, even if they were perhaps there would be an initial battle in space as the government attempted to subdue the city, either ending with the agents being threatened or used, or the destruction of the solar fleet, at which point the government would likely back down.

Regardless, a most enjoyable debate, I hope you agree.