The hardcoded SDK is what keeps it stuck. But I do not read the missing card as a decision. In that sample the discovery group ran 124 times and passed twice, and both passes were login metadata. Almost every host passed the same two robots checks and nothing else. That is the floor. Nothing in the group looks like a weighed tradeoff. Your 403 reading holds, and a 403 is worse for a cold agent than a 404, because a refusal leaves a reason to retry with credentials.
