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20 years isn’t that long. The point of patents is to quickly get secrets out into the public while still incentivizing people to make them known.

In this case this tiny company doesn’t have the resources to optimize production and has failed for years. They might eventually receive outside funding and figure it out, but they could also fail without releasing their secrets as has happened a few times.

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As I understand, you don't have to disclose secrets when filing a patent. You can describe the process in general terms and omit important formulas, quantities of different materials etc.

The more you omit the less protection you receive. There’s many approaches to getting around patents and they generally work really well if you’re vague.

Revealing secrets is kind of the entire point of the patent: you tell everyone how it's done, in return you get 20 years monopoly. US patents even have a "best mode" requirement where you have to describe the best way known to you right now, where many other countries allow you to describe an inferior version and still get full protection.

In reality you can get patents granted that are somewhat vague. It's not like the patent office actually tests if the patent text is sufficient to replicate your invention.

By all means, close your eyes.

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