You're absolutely right. Like you, I'm convinced an army of reporters were ready to go all-in on the Keffals saga--and then they found out about the Catboi Ranch and the child grooming and the bathtub HRT and it all came to a screeching halt.
And then there's one more thing, which is Keffals himself. Behold the man: a more unsympathetic-looking and -sounding figure is hard to imagine. I mean, look at him: the lumpy, weirdly proportioned body, the grating voice, the dead eyes. Everything we've learned about Keffals indicates a barely disguised sociopath. Did you see his wretched attempt at genuine emotion when he tried crying during that televised interview? You can almost see the thought balloons above his head reading MAKE MY SAD FACE. DO IT JUST LIKE I PRACTICED. I'VE GOT THIS. Keffals doesn't human very well.
Keffals wants to be seen as a heroic figure. He wants the fame, the money, the attention, the access to children. More savvy media types in the trans activist community know they do not want this misshapen psycho freakshow as the face and voice of their movement. Trans activists and their media allies want the face of their movement to be pretty. Keffals isn't pretty. Keffals is scary.