I think that empirical proof one way or the other will tip the scales in favour of one of our points of view
Sadly, there will be no such proof in the public domain. Even if there was such evidence, such as the Zapruder pictures in an unrelated case, it would be later and perhaps forever be suppressed and/or used by either side of the debate as evidence, not proof, of one viewpoint or the other.
I worked for the US search & recovery contractor to the USN on the Space Shuttle Discovery job at the time. We had four priorities. First was to fetch the human remains. Second was to fetch the SRBs. Third was to fetch the electro-optical astronav gizmo which was located just in front of the command pilot's windscreen. It was the same gadget as the one which navigates Trident missiles inflight and was, in those days, a bit secret.
Fourth was to find and recover the cargo. There had been a lot of prestidigitator distraction, such as the girlie skoolteetcha, to avoid any mention of the actual purpose of the flight's mission. The satellite which was to be launched was a superduperultrahighlytop secret thingy which was publically labelled as a comms satellite.
When we eventually got to the site where it was known to have fallen, the hecking thing was gone. The hecking Russkies had hecked orf wiv it.
They'd been waiting for it, in the hope that it might just do what it just did. They knew what a piece of shyte the Space Shuttle was and they knew where to pre-position their diver lockout sub(s) just in case they might get lucky.
Stuff happens underwater which is just too embarassing, for one side or the other, or both, to be published.