The problem seems to be that the preregistration issues are the thing everyone wants to focus on but there kind of a red herring that distracts from the real inferential problems that are inherent in the study design.

Noone ever wants to talk abt the design & inference. They just want to endlessly discuss preregistration not particularly in relation to either of the former. No matter how much we tried to keep the focus on the evidence provided in the study. None of that matters. It's a case of the missing prereg!