*cracks knucles*
Wanna try and take care of all these in one go.
This is probably the only real plot point in the episode for me. And I'm hoping we see it get addressed in the next episode by a rather pissed of Rush and Eli. My guess, some idiot IOC interrogators did get the information pretty quickly, but figured there was no issue since 'what harm could he really do on Desitny?' I don't think the attack was immanent, so, instead of doing what the military would have done, they kept the information for themselves, thinking they would call Simeon down next. We've seen plenty of times how the IOC doesn't like to share information.
The G'ould, Replicators (classic style), and Ori were a different class of baddie altogether. They all believed themselves to be unbeatable. And for the longest time they were. Even with all the fancy tech the SGC had, the Ori were kicking their asses. The G'ould and Ori were too full of themselves to believe they were in real danger and needed anything other than an outright attack (although the Ori did get a bit sneaky and force convert worlds). The classic Replicators just didn't think in that way, and the Nanocators had the same issue as the G'ould and Ori.
The LA si completely different. The analogy to being terrorists, or at least operating like terrorists, is a good one. They're incredibly difficult to beat because there's no one place to attack them. Any attack just takes out a small cell. And, of course, since Earth is always getting in the way and taking down the cells, it becomes a natural target. Sure, the Earth/Jaffa alliance may have technological superiority, but the LA has numbers on its side (taking up all the G'ould tech the free Jaffa couldn't grab up) and stealth. The United States has military superiority too. And look how well that's working out.
It's more than just an intellectual exercise. Destiny might be on track to figure out what/how the universe was created. Possibly the purpose of everything. Before discovering Ascension (which I believe provides ultimate knowledge?) this was the most important thing to the Ancients.
As for the crew being useful for that purpose? Most of the crew aren't useful now with regards to getting the crew home other than guard duty (which was the same way it was on the original Icarus project). And they still can't just go home, even if they now have total control of the systems. To use the gate, they still need a sufficient power source to dial Earth, which they don't have. Although Eli has an idea.
And they can't just fly home. First off, they don't know where home is in relation to where they are, and could end up going in the wrong direction. Secondly, they're billions of light years away. Doing some quick math, and assuming they can travel the distance of a galaxy in roughly 6 hours (a gate can dial the length of a galaxy, and 4 hours of travel keeps them in range of a gate), and a galaxy is on average about 100,000 light years long (like the Milky Way)...
...It would take them about 27 years to get home. And that's if they never stop for power/food/water/whatever. And that's if they don't go in the wrong direction.
So they might as well continue on Destiny's original mission while working on ideas for getting back to Earth. It's not like they have much else to do, and who know what the payoff from what they find out along the way.
We don't know what form the attack on Earth may be. Like someone said, it could consist of parking a cloaked naquida filled ship over Washington DC or Stargate Command, and pressing the big red button. It's not necessarily going to be an all out attack on Earth. One description of the LA is that they're former smuggles and gangsters. So I keep getting this mental picture of Al Capone's mob (the LA) vs the Feds and police (SGC). The attack on Earth may be analogous to a drive-by shooting. Except, the LA version of a tommy gun uses high explosives and starships.
Now, sending someone with Simeon's knowledge to Destiny is admittedly another potential plot point that needs cleared up. Although, I get the impression the LA knew things about Destiny the crew doesn't, so maybe it's part of their planned attack somehow? Or they were hoping to find tech that would help with the attack? Until it's cleared up, this is a dangling point.
I'm not sure why Simeon (or the LA in general) valuing his own life over the cause really matters. Knowing he couldn't stay on Destiny anymore because they'd want his information, he tried escaping and finding his way back to his people. And only when he had a gun to his face and critical injuries did he decide to beg for his life. That's pretty committed to the cause.
