But what is unique is the fact that we have an extremely well preserved corpus of text surrounding him.

IIFC all those writing are dated to well after the life time, like 100 year past it or so. It may be a bunch of written things but there is no/little reason to take those writings as anything but written down stories.

Ever play Telephone with a single word for 5 minutes? Now do that to a epic for 100 years, the end result will certainly be something but it may be nothing like the truth

Sounds like the CCP approach to twain with the "but a ‘kingdom’ in the past had this territory so we are entitled to it.

can I just use the zester to get some of the acidic bite back into a fresh sqeeuzed thing?

I agree with the title statement. Why do I comment less? Articles much fewer?

Yes, bring us the consensus engine

the old subreddit r/aBetterWorld is an idea that would help you exactly in this instance if it were not just an idea