The previously reported issue was alleged to take place in 2013-2015.

This issue in this thread is alleged to have taken place in August 2018.

In the intervening time, much could have happened.

They might actually know for much longer: if your spying devices suddenly stop communicating to you, that's likely you've been discovered.

If that story is true (and I personnaly think it has a high probability to be), what would a gov or a large org do? Investigate, confirm they have been compromised but then.... leave the hw in place and data flowing back to the alien mothership? Unlikely.

Yes, it was made public at this time for a reason. I have no idea about who made it public and why, but you can be sure there is a bigger game here.

Did the journalist and/or their friends and family make money on the massive drop in Supermicro stock?

Is the Trump administration asking to push this information out to earn favor in the trade war?

Are the investigators stumped and using this in an attempt to flush out new leads?

No idea.