The lab leak was a valid hypothesis since early 2020 and credible scientists had been warning about the possibility of a leak, specifically from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, well before that. By April, there were long arguments with evidence being published, such as here
https://yurideigin.medium.com/lab-made-cov2-genealogy-throug.... These were not "China==bad" arguments. Just people willing to look at the facts. If anything, they were "gain-of-function research==bad" but the Obama administration had put the kibosh on funding GoF research in the US for similar concerns, so surely that was acceptable criticism. When Trump took office, it appears that Fauci took advantage of the chaotic transition period to quietly lift those prohibitions.
Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence to support that the virus was in fact "designed in the lab by humans" so not sure why you're lumping that in with "conspiratorial reasoning".
Meanwhile, there was what looks like an actual conspiracy by prominent scientists led by Peter Daszak to mislead the public about the possible origins of the virus. These scientists intentionally, collectively, misled the public and hid their obvious conflicts of interests. Wouldn't that qualify as a conspiracy?
History and the nature of the spread did not support a zoological origin of the virus. The likelihood of zoological vectors is an over-stated fever dream of gain-of-function grant seekers. If anything, the fact that ground zero for the virus was on the doorstep of the Wuhan Institute of Virology where the research specialty is bat coronaviruses suggests the null hypothesis is lab-leak. Zoonotic spread was a hypothesis that favored the actors likely responsible for the accident.
The evidence that the virus escaped a lab is not merely circumstantial and certainly not merely that China is, er, not forthcoming. The principal evidence is in the structure of the virus itself. There are details of the virus spike protein that appear likely to have been created in a lab using a bat coronavirus as a base.
The "debate" has been highly politicized, all right. But the politics has been mostly on the side pushing for a natural origin. Would it suprise you if CCP propagandists were involved in promoting the theory that points the blame anywhere but at the government of China, perhaps pushing the narrative that anyone who says otherwise is, wait for it, racist? Given how punishing the Chinese government can be to those who are perceived to oppose Chinese interests, and the many conflicts of interest vis a vis China and the Chinese market that exist in our government and science research industry, is it surprising that the narrative pushed by corporate media would relentlessly promote zoonotic and demote lab-leak?
Assuming the virus did, in fact, come from a lab -- one that had been cited for lacking sufficient safety protocols and training for the research conducted there -- it's certainly reasonable to want to investigate and ensure it doesn't happen again. Who would that be "deflecting blame" from? And "scapegoat" implies that China wasn't to blame. If the virus originated from a government lab in Wuhan, then they are to blame.
An opinion piece in Forbes by an astrophysicist on evolutionary microbiology is worth not much in my book. Despite looking really hard, we haven't found the missing link in nature that would support an evolutionary explanation for the odd protein sequences. Gain-of-function is the simpler explanation. Meanwhile, the CCP is apparently engaged in a cover-up now, putting out agitprop about bat-bites and other smokescreens. Why would they do that, do you think?
I'm not even going to go into all the circumstantial evidence that connects our major GoF researchers and money to the Wuhan lab. That would take another long post.