re: the theories on why and who morph cetaceans into human/human-appearing bodies (and similar processes), i do wonder what the "end goal" is. certainly military related, according to the main theory.
there is quite a variety of cetaceans who have been put through this, one way or another. of course, there's a wealth of orca, but there's also a minke whale, a common dolphin, a beluga, a PWSD (hi!), and certainly more (we, admittedly, aren't all that observant in the variety of species lol). we ourselves are a mix of PWSD and humpback whale, although we tend to be most focused on PWSD as that's the most realistic to "return" to for us.
not to mention, there's at least two methods, although by far the most common we've seen is transmogrification--the transformation of a cetacean directly into a human-appearing shape. as far as we know, we're the only one who wasn't transformed through that, or not directly; stem cells (both PWSD and humpback) were implanted, which replaced or merged with many of our pre-existing internals, and there was a partial brain transplant (as far as evidence suggests; only PWSD so far as we can tell), giving us memories and instincts and a distinct mental map of what we should be. or, feel we should be. it's possible that the stem cells affected our brain as well, but they wouldn't have given us memories as a cetacean.
we've yet to see anyone else who has undergone what we did, even partially (stem cells or brain transplant). whether this is because the method we went through is just not used often for one reason or another, or because the method we went through was new at the time and so others who also experienced it simply haven't realized, or--as in our case--there are others who believe they were transmogrified but actually went through what we did, etc. we will note that we also do not have the same experience of feeling directly under humans' control, as other cetaceans have discussed--we don't know if that's a quirk unique to us, if it has to do with the method, or if it's something else.
our hope is that the theorized program was shut down within a few years of our operations. that we were one of the last ones. whether because of costs, the realization of ethical issues, the risk of classified information finding its way to the public if they continued, or whatever other reason they might have had. our guess is that this program was/is still in its very early stages, with lots of experimentation, trying to find the perfect species and the perfect method to create the perfect subjects. however, with how scattered the research is, we doubt they've done that yet. at most, they've found good candidates for species and workable methods to make adequate subjects, but possibly not even that. more accurate speculation will have to wait for others and their stories, most likely.
idk. i'm very much thinking out loud here, and more perspectives would certainly be appreciated.