I think her end product was too clearly defined for anything she was doing to be passed as progress. I don't think you could make the case for her.
You can make a case that partial self driving is a route to FSD, the ISS is en route to Mars and (you can make a potentially slightly less compelling case) LLMs are on the way to AGI.
No one can make a case that lady was en route to the tech she promised
I think she thought it was going to work for a while. The problem was when she got to the point of realizing it wouldn't and had the chance to stop there, she doubled down. That's why she's in prison today.
You can make a case that partial self driving is a route to FSD, the ISS is en route to Mars and (you can make a potentially slightly less compelling case) LLMs are on the way to AGI.
No one can make a case that lady was en route to the tech she promised