I thought the scientists from the 24th century had to have been responsible for the cylinder because they were responsible for the key that opened the cylinder. They found the Progenitor tech 800 years ago and decided it needed to be more hidden than it was. That's why they made the clues Discovery has been collecting all season. Those scientists may have followed clues left by the Progenitors themselves, but the clues Discovery has been following were left by the scientists not by the Progenitors. The clues lead to and allow the opening of the cylinder. I was thinking the portal is original to the Progenitors because it's still operational and as we saw with the Denebulan water makers, 24th century technology can fail within hundreds of years unless it's maintained.
I thought the scientists just enclosed the portal in that cylinder of duranium. The final scene shows the cylinder being destroyed and the portal being exposed to space. That means the portal existed independently of the cylinder. If the cylinder was generating the portal, it would cease when the cylinder was destroyed.
Every company always claims they did nothing wrong. Is it even necessary for journalists to ask for a statement from a company? Just take it as read they deny whatever they're accused of. You think a CEO is going to make an evil cackle, twirl their mustache, and admit everything?
They made it seem like the object was between the black holes, which would be L1, but only L4 and L5 are long-term stable. To remain at L1 (or 2 or 3), you need stationkeeping. The ability to keep station for billions of years is a wonder all on its own.
They faked the ship's destruction, letting the Primarch think he could pursue the objective at his leisure. He could take his time being petty and destroying the Archive. Discovery visibly escaping would put him under time pressure. If he delays to indulge his pettiness, Discovery could get the technology. They'd be using themselves as bait to lure the Breen away from the civilians.
Also, the Primarch only made his threat against the Archive later. If they'd jumped immediately after the away team was aboard, it would have been before the threat was made. It also would have been before the Breen's weapon demonstration, so the Archive would have been 100% intact when they left. At that moment, they had every reason to believe that the Archive was only in danger due to their presence. The logical, civilian-saving response would be to remove their presence.
Sometimes, it seems like they forget about the spore drive. They could have leapt to the other side of the galaxy the instant the away team beamed back from the Archive. The Breen might have the ability to destroy the Archive, but with Discovery gone, it wouldn't gain them anything and how ever long it took them would be time lost for chasing Discovery. When the Breen catch up, Discovery could just jump to the other other side of the galaxy.
Also, why didn't Discovery prepare a fake clue? With 31st century replication, it couldn't have taken more than seconds to prepare a reasonable facsimile of the original. Moll did no more than a visual inspection of the artifact to affirm its authenticity and she had never seen the completed object, only some of the pieces. The real artifact is a small obelisk with a button on top. So, make a small obelisk with a button on top that projects coordinates to a random star system. There would be no way for the Breen to discover the deception except to go there and find nothing.
