What makes the UAP cycle from 2017 onward interesting is that, in many ways, it mirrors the ARG component of QAnon: so much of it is a small group of people dropping clues and red herrings for an online community to obsessively pursue and abstract meaning from

The periodic news leaks aren't that different from Q drops in that they never lead to anything beyond further speculation over when the prophecy will be fulfilled

And much as with QAnon, every failure of that day to come is met with the group of online obsessives making stronger commitments to their core beliefs because they're stuck in the game with other believers/players who can help reinterpret that failure as being a part of the plan