It's amazing how long it takes them to act on the obvious. PE was a useless alternative to Sudafed, I don't know the history of why other than they wanted to limit access to Sudafed for meth control reasons, why it was pushed as a 'substitute'. How many of our medicines are placebos if it took them this long to admit the obvious? It doesn't inspire trust in the rulemaking process.
I recall looking into cough syrups etc, to find out which OTC medication was most effective. None of them did anything at all, according to studies, including ones that have been on the market for decades.