The entire story surrounding this discovery is a scientific rollercoaster ride, with rogue scientists, updated papers, plus cloudy definitions and process descriptions within the paper that make replication efforts more difficult, and even a Russian soil scientist (and anime catgirl) deconstructing the original Korean paper to unveil the trademark levitation of the Meissner effect over her own kitchen counter.
I can't believe they just dropped all this without any explanation. XD
My working knowledge of this entire situation stems from this Substack post, which gives slightly more info than what you quoted and kind of explains the anime catgirl
Even if LK-99 isnt scalable or viable but simply works sometimes under certain circumstances as a room temperature superconductor, it would be a big jump. Not only would it prove that room temperature superconductors are viable, it could be the first step in developing better alternatives to LK-99.