Jacques Vallee's entire body of work has not produced one iota of useful information about the true nature of UFOs. Human beings are unreliable witnesses, period. They lie, imagine, construct false memories, incorporate dreams into memories, make mistakes, hallucinate, fill in non-existent details and generally are terrible at reporting the confusing signals received by their senses. That's why we have science: to eliminate, as much as possible, the wretchedness of human observation, by systematizing it, subjecting it to cross-checking, challenging it at every opportunity.
No amount of collecting human stories and trying to fit them into a speculative pattern qualifies as science. It's entertaining, even interesting, but does nothing to advance our knowledge about the way the universe works. Science does that all the time. When science has a load of data it wishes to fit into a speculative pattern, it jolly well tests to see if that pattern fits with the way nature works. If it doesn't, it gets thrown out and some new pattern is devised and tested. If the data is any good in the first place, real advances occur in our understanding. Ufology is a source of humor in the wider world because it deserves to be. It appears to be a bunch of often intelligent people expending vast amounts of energy in "researching" a subject without ever discovering a single useful piece of knowledge about it. And when nothing ever (ever!) is nailed down, do the ufologists rightly conclude that there just may be nothing to all of this data but the vagaries of human perception and need to tell stories? No way! It's the government hiding stuff from us, it's the aliens or cryptos doing a perfect job of obscuring their trail, it's (and this is my favorite) the Trickster. The fucking Trickster?
If you believe that every story has value then there's no end to what you'll have to fit into your worldview. The angel Moroni, leprechauns, Mohammed ascending into heaven on a horse, garden fairies, flying saucers doing bovine autopsies, Jesus Christ rising from the dead, Skinwalker Ranch ... there's no end to it. If you can pick and choose without any real proof, you're making an emotional choice, a leap of faith that has no real value in advancing your knowledge. Jacques Vallee speaks in a seemingly rational manner and builds an interesting framework for laughably unreliable data. Jim Jones and countless others have done the same, but that doesn't mean it's wise to drink the Kool-Aid.
It's amusing to listen to shows like the Paracast. Get some real skeptics on the show and it will become even more interesting and perhaps even useful.
Some of the older Ufologists like Vallée and Keel, were talking up weird and possible theories for the origin UFO's, long and way before scientists started or take a look at the possibilities of extra dimensions beyond the third dimension, we occupy today. The new science of this generation does seem to be all about possibilities, as far as I am aware, Quantum theory and Quantum physics, and String Theory, are basically just thoughts processes, which have yet to be proven outright.
Here is my opinion on some of what you said, take it or leave it!
Vallée, and people like him who study UFO's are visionaries and thinkers. Vallée, has an opinion, UFO's whatever they are or turn out to be. Have been with us in someform for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and he concluded, we are dealing with a phenomenon that doesn't act in a way we, as humans, presume it would or should!
You have to understand nobody in Ufology, has the overall answers to what the UFO phenomenon is, everyone has a pet theory and even I Have a theory, but nobody can conclusively say one way another UFO''s come from a planet in our solar system or further out, or that UFO's come from dimensions, outside of our view or vision.
The fact that neither Skeptics and Science, will not look at the data, is what we believers (who believe something real not imagined is happening) find infuriating. You claim open-mindedness, but why do Skeptics, for the most part avoid many of the pondering questions. What is it thousands of people are observing or seeing in the skies? ( as a skeptic explain the shapes people seen, the photographs and video tapes, as far as I am aware images should not appear in a photograph if it does not exist!... If a phenomenon doesn't exist, shouldn't that be contradicted at every turn by records, the fact that we have a number of Records and documentation, that talk about the reality of the UFO phenomenon as being real not imagined should give every Skeptic pause!
You bring up Santa Claus (which in fact a man one lived that this myth arose from) and the Easter bunny silly analogies that don't fit the argument as all. The fact that the UFO phenomenon in some form or another has been spotted in every country, that has language to speak of, most tell you something? It wasn't reindeers and Santa, people saw, he only comes once a year (little joke) people are describing similar objects to what is seen on one side of the world to the next, and this is ample confirmation for me, the phenomenon is not fictitious or imagined.
You've a hard up for Vallée, ok I agree to this point. It is a leap of faith to believe one theory to origins over another one, but is simply wrong to suggest that the data is unreliable or not conclusive. We do have a genuine phenomenon there, more so, than any other paranormal topic than gets discussed on these type of shows. One witness or two witnesses, even ten we can not trust, but when you have thousands of peoples, over dozens of years, from around globe seen the same thing, then you have to be intellectually honest with yourself, and step back is really that insane people are seeing what they claim they have?
Science, just expects a different intelligence to award us with their presence for everyone to see, seemly is not like that, whatever this intelligence motives are, and I presume it is an intelligence, the intelligence acts in a way that all purposes is alien, or has something to hide from us? I do agree we all basically come on here everyday talk about the same stuff over and over again in a different way, but we do only because we honestly for the most part believe, the Phenomenon UFO exists. The weird theories only stem, and I just brought it up previously, that the Phenomenon itself is unrevealing, and Governments have no need to tell the public something exists, which is undoubtedly would be out of the norm, since the phenomenon doesn't intervene in World affairs, for the most part the Phenomenon just pops up, every now and again spotted, but it does not stick around long to be studied, that in my opinion is deliberate. Any self thinking intelligence would know the longer you stick around, the more attention you will receive!
Anyway, the Trickster is a joker, maybe people just can't take the possibility the phenomenon might be fooling us into believe one theory, over another, or that the phenomenon has they ability to transform it self from one thing to another, that stuff it really out there for lot of people to take in, but Chris is right in lot of Folkloric tales of weird goings on, that were handed down through the ages.
Cultures have made certain claims, they'd seen "Beings" change or morph from one state to the next and back again. In some Irish Tales locals described seeing fairy people change from animals to humans and back again.Those aspects of the Phenomenon is what lot of Ufologists who believe in the Nuts and bolts theory of UFO's, find hard to believe is real, who knows but the tales still exist, so we can't just pick and choose the tales we want to believe or the ones that suit the theory one pushes, we have to include everything as long as there is history or evidence there to back it all up!
Ufology causes a few laughs among ye skeptics, but maybe you need to consider the possibility the laugh is on you! Consider that one and smoke it!