@design_law As a non-patent-person (and non-lawyer) follower, this is intriguing! May I check my very dim understanding here by attempting to restate?
Is what you’re saying that, legally speaking, “anticipation” vs infringement is (purely? mostly?) a function of order in time, whereas “obviousness” is a test that does not (entirely? at all?) depend on what’s already been done before? Am I in the ballpark here?