I am not convinced by the provenance history of the VMS

[oshfdk]

But the Standard Provenance theory is affecting the reasoning of many people, because it makes it seem likely that the VMS was made in Central Europe (not just by an European scribe).  

Could it have been created in Constantinople or Yerevan or Samarkand by an European scribe?  Or by a local scribe who was used to writing in Greek or Armenian or Glagolitic but in paragraph format like European scribes did?  Currently, most people would consider that unlikely, because it seems unlikely that a manuscript produced in those places could have been sold to Rudolf in Prague by ~1590.

Why not? What would prevent a manuscript created in Samarkand circa 1420 from reaching Prague 170 years later? If the gap was 10-30 years one could argue that the author of the manuscript could still be around and geography would matter a lot more. In 170 years it's almost certain that the manuscript changed hands several times, be it via sale, inheritance, or many other possible ways, and it makes it more likely that it travelled some way or even a lot before coming to Prague. I don't think the Standard Provenance limits the possible origin of the manuscript more than the observables (radiocarbon dating and generally European imagery).

Marci, Baresch, Kircher appeared to be as clueless about the manuscript they talked about as we are about the Voynich Manuscript.

That is a weak argument for the provenance. There were hundreds of thousands of manuscripts that would have left them equally clueless.  

This was not an argument for the provenance, this was an argument for the lack of importance of the provenance, as it stands now, for the study of the manuscript itself. If Baresch wrote about "a manuscript originally acquired in Constantinople" it would be important to know whether Baresch was indeed talking about the Voynich MS or not. However, in the extant letters Baresch or Marci didn't appear to say anything that would add to what we know from the manuscript itself. The Standard Provenance is only important when looking for further clues, in itself it imposes no limits to most theories other than the modern forgery.