Have we ruled out simple substitution unwisely?

[Koen G]

I would love for someone to show that simple substitution could work, because that would mean we're in business again of trying to solve the text in the most straightforward way. I spent a long time on this, trying from various angles, but I didn't find a way to show that simple substitution is feasible. And with that, I join a long line of previous researchers.

Hopefully we missed something. But if you are convinced that simple substitution is a theoretical option, then showing some concrete steps and their effect on the statistics would be helpful. The tools are available.

My prediction is this: Voynichese is so inherently problematic, that by looking for a way to make it work for simple substitution, you will have to do many things that are not simple substitution.