Appeasement is probably not the way I'd put it. Of course if HiLo made good the debt, that would please me. We'll never get those years back and it wasn't an option to sit tight and wait for someone to fix my broken roof under a warranty that no longer exists, but that's the way life goes and we need to learn from it.
One might assume that if VTA have bought the company all the proceeds from the sale will go to the creditors of HiLo. Unless they already sold the assets out of HiLo (on 14 June 2022), which would mean that VTA have just made a nice donation to the Pendlebury Pension Fund. You can call me cynical and impossible to appease one jot (that's usually a derogatory turn of phrase where I come from, I'll assume that it's not in "God's Own Country"). So let's wait to hear a full story before deciding that they are in the clear, and like you say it's not just about the IP.
We're all heading towards speculation - let it rest and we'll reconvene when further information is available?
It's good that you're finally moving closer to getting the van @Bav
