That doesn't mean one is right and the other wrong. Maybe herpes gets in first and lets gingivalis in, or vice versa, or some other, more interesting interaction.
What's tragic is that effectively none of the present researchers are virologists or bacteriologists. As consequences, (1) progress studying and generating a useful clinical response will be radically slowed by resistance from the old guard to the threat to their livelihood, and (2) they will all need to find something else to do, because you can't pick up those specializations overnight.
The herpes connection was noted twenty years ago, but is only now getting traction. If it's right, then almost everybody who died of AS since then was killed by the structural resistance to the idea.
The best way to accelerate progress, now, would be to find another urgent health problem that seems to need the skillset that had previously been brought to bear on AS, so they jump ship and get the hell out of the way.