I agree with your logic. It's just that the "researchers" thing just doesn't smell right for me. You hear constantly about researchers finding malware/spyware related to Chinese hackers, to Russian hackers, to North Korean hackers. No researcher has ever found anything related to American hackers, European hackers or Israeli hackers. Either western state hackers are so good that researchers never find out what they do, or researchers get a visit from two guys in a black suit when they find something relevant and decide not to publish anything.