It's not as 'hilarious' as you think when you factor in that Comstar had an unquestioned monopoly on all the means to not only locate those libraries for torching, but also to edit the post-fire investigations, and to edit the orders organizing any investigations, and edit records to conceal their activities, and read everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE's) classified mail...
and edit that, too.....
It is hilarious, plain and simple
Spheroids simply aren't as smart as people give them credit for
During era of perfect boy VSD the bogeymen couldn't be stronger, better or smarter than tha golden boy and his crew so the reasoning was that enemy had the head start or something but that excuse only works once
The year is 3152, ComStar hasn't been able to meddle with anything for well over a century, Spheroids had both Star League and Clan data available and still nothing
What is Spheroid excuse in anno domini 3152?
So either technology plateaued or Clans are better at science
And Spheroids allowing ComStar to play around uninterrupted speaks volumes
It makes sense that people who allow something like this would be lagging at academia
Lore is what it is