Irrespective of whether pangolins are 'natural reservoirs' of SARSr viruses, they are natural reservoirs of coronaviruses and thus both suceptible to SARSr-viruses jumping from bats into them (which would make them relavant as intermediate hosts) and also capable of hosting viral recombinations with pangolin Covs, creating potentially dangerous pathogens.

The fact that we have discovered pangolins with SARS-CoV-2 related strains, be it a small subset of a handful of animals, is a nice indication that this 'route' is one which a SARS-CoV_2 progenitor could have taken. Even if these samples were a mere 'myth', as you put it (which is by the way not established nor shared by experts), it would not preclude that 'route' from being a possibility. And it certainly has nothing to do with the engineering argument you tried to advance, so not sure why it is even in here. Was it because of pangolin ACE2-RBD found in these strains that you feel you had to 'discredit'? The Laos bats got you covered now anyways. Knowing high affinity RBDs for human ACE are out in nature makes the whole "only engineering approaches like e.g directed evolution could bring something like this forth" idea a tad less compelling, don't you think?