Yeah, that should have been a warning sign. The thing that really set off my spidey senses was folks on the list saying "if you have a better idea than EME + C

Yeah, that should have been a warning sign. The thing that really set off my spidey senses was folks on the list saying "if you have a better idea than EME + CDM, please propose it", then all proposals being shot down. The whole thing looks rather suspicious to me, hence my attempt to back it up a level of abstraction to the actual requirements.