First of all, there’s no we here. MAPS is a non-profit entity that survives mostly off private donations. So, it’s their decision and the decision of people who support them to invest primarily in MDMA research because they believe it fits best with the Western treatment and insurance model for PTSD.
Your links are to a PTSD research proposal with zero results and positive results from small group (medicine circles) therapy. I do believe the medicine circle model is effective for treating PTSD, and mentioned it specifically in my last response.
That said, it’s also a liability nightmare for insurance companies and much different than how talk therapy is usually conducted under the Western modality. Medicine spaces work through shared vulnerability. Allowing someone with trauma to integrate into the community. Raves and Burns and other psychedelic spaces create a similar setting for classical psychedelics to do this. And there’s ‘men’s work’ and many other methods that do something similar without drugs by creating ritual spaces for shared vulnerability.
MDMA helps a person lower their fear response. To be vulnerable without feeling vulnerable. This helps a person open up and feel safe in a more traditional talk therapy environment, which is how MAPS is using it.
I hope that helps clarify some things. And btw, Psilocybin comes with cardiovascular warnings too. Though, the danger of this is mostly in microdosing due to chronic use. But there is a danger there with it. And the cardiovascular distress from MDMA is comparable to many drugs the FDA has approved in the past.
I think the FDA board making a fuss about this is drug war bias and protection of antidepressant cash flows, tbh. And not about the cardiovascular issues at all. Though, the critique of the failed double blinding is valid, I know these aren’t the only two phase 3 clinical trials that have been submitted either.