Doesn't it depend on just how different these organisms are? If, for example, they have nothing resembling the cell of a prokaryotic or eukaryotic organisms (DN

Doesn't it depend on just how different these organisms are? If, for example, they have nothing resembling the cell of a prokaryotic or eukaryotic organisms (DNA, etc.), it can definitely mean something big. If they have the same "conceptual" cell but the details of its internals differ somewhat, then indeed it's far from scandalous, it just means the evolutionary tree branched earlier than with other organisms. The second case would also be interesting in itself, of course.