There might be a positive outcome of this, if subsequent analysis of the Welsh witness reports were found to accurately describe the appearance and flight behavior of lanterns. If few witnesses described variations in speed, direction, light intensity, etc., and few described great speed or flashing lights, then it would indicate that most witnesses weren’t much affected by their expectations of what they “should” be seeing, due to either the reports they’d been reading about recently, or their standard UFO template in general.

In effect, this constitutes an unintentional experiment in witness suggestibility and projection-prone-ness. If the results are “good” from our perspective, this in turn would add credibility to the likely accuracy of future witness reports.