It could certainly be the case that the VM has become meaningless - its possible meaning lost forever. I am increasingly concerned that this may in fact be the case.
There are some ancient scripts we still can't read, even though we have more data. We know the type of script and the some types of texts, we know they were used in administration etc. We know the archaeological context.
For the VM, we don't know what kind of script we are dealing with (syllables? Alphabet? Weird cipher? Abbreviations?) We don't know what the subject is, if any. We don't know where it was made, we don't know the language or even language family spoken by its makers (marginalia in "bad German" are not conclusive evidence...). We have nothing to go on.
Even when you know much more background than we do about the VM, and even when it is guaranteed that there is meaning, it is very hard to decipher an unknown script.
There are some ancient scripts we still can't read, even though we have more data. We know the type of script and the some types of texts, we know they were used in administration etc. We know the archaeological context.
For the VM, we don't know what kind of script we are dealing with (syllables? Alphabet? Weird cipher? Abbreviations?) We don't know what the subject is, if any. We don't know where it was made, we don't know the language or even language family spoken by its makers (marginalia in "bad German" are not conclusive evidence...). We have nothing to go on.
Even when you know much more background than we do about the VM, and even when it is guaranteed that there is meaning, it is very hard to decipher an unknown script.