Exactly, I was asking the same thing a few pages back, why not just go with a prosthethic, for the kind of money they waste on this shit, today they could get as close to lifelike as sillicone can provide.
It's because they want the process of transformation. They're in it for the whole surgical process and to be able to tell the story and to be a part of the group that's gone through it, they're not in it for the outcome.
It's just like when "queer" activists try to force traditional conservative religions to accept them when there's a perfectly good Episcopalian church down the street: they aren't there for the liturgy, they're in it for the transgression itself.
I would be very interested in seeing any detransers posting evidence of their before (in-cult) and after (ex-cult) thought processes. That is, if there are any brave enough to admit that when they were brainwashed they spent hours of their lives posting on reddit about their desperation for blockers, hormones, SRS etc and how suicide-making it is that can't get it all instantly for free VS their woe is me posts once they exit the tunnel.
And this isn't bc I don't support detrans ppl, heck I support anyone leaving a cult, but you gotta stop whitewashing the past and own up to being as nuts as the next troon while in the thick of it. Endless talk about 'journeys' and 'true selves' doesn't gel with selective editing of personal histories.
There are podcasts and books about cults that will touch on cult-like groups and warning signs, just to say, "hey, this might not officially be a traditional cult with a central guru, but it has some unhealthy red flags." (The podcast A Little Bit Culty is an example of this, even though they're extremely normie).
I really wish we were far enough along in this whole troon process for programs like that to be able to talk about the trans stuff already! They deal with untangling personal accountability and the harm you did in the cult vs the harm done to you and brainwashing, for one thing. The thought-terminating cliches, circular reasoning, isolation from friends/family, control of language, all that stuff is there.
Imo if detransitioners could get a bigger picture of the psychology of this stuff outside of gender bs, plus talk to ex-cult people who have NOTHING to do with SJW/gender/political bullshit, it could help give them language to talk about it and get them out of the "obsessed with gender, but now I'm an insane obsessed radfem" loop.
It's too bad that at this point, nobody will touch this stuff with a ten-foot pole. There MUST be people who produce these programs who KNOW it's going to be an issue someday.