I actually do find it extremely hard to believe that even the Chinese government would be able to internally formulate a plan to intentionally release a virus w

I actually do find it extremely hard to believe that even the Chinese government would be able to internally formulate a plan to intentionally release a virus without droves of bureaucrats coming out as vocal whistleblowers. When you have a large organization (especially one as large as the Chinese government) you're going to have some actors with strong ethical beliefs. Deciding to take this course of action (for some reason whatever it may be) and then actually implementing this action would be incredibly difficult. Silencing discussion about an accidental release is in a completely different ballpark where you're working to (in your view) prevent harm - not cause it. The intentional weaponized release angle of lab-leak entirely preempted any reasonable discussion on the matter.