Had to meltdown your post to the points I like to answer, sorry.
1.) Once I wrote a blog about the announcement politics of Brainchip. As there are some similarities to Weebit Nano, it is worth a comparison:
Price sensitive ann.: Weebit Nano tapes-out first 22nm demo chip
Hidden in a 4C: Brainchip tapes out 22nm AKD 1500
Price sensitive ann.: First Weebit ReRAM product now available through SkyWater (demo chips)
No ann.: Products with Akida IP by MegaChips, SocioNext, Teksun, IP integration into ARM chips offered as option and so on.
Could go on with this for a while. The question remains, why Brainchip reacts in such a defensive way. Ok, there'd been some beef with the ASX in the past, but this can't be the reason to avoid any kind of announcement others use as price sensitive.
2.) Maybe needs to be corrected if wrong, just from memory: There's a last tranche from LDA about AU$ 15Mio which has to be taken until end of 2023.
The shares are blocked for selling at the open market for 3 months.
3.) That's the typical way of the big players. For example in the automotive sector Mercedes and Volkswagen always invest in small suppliers to avoid any problems in the supply chain and to be prepared to take over if needed. As noone knows who is behind all those nominee accounts in the Top20 shareholders list, this might have happened here already.
4.) Based on older informations from MegaChips, the second biggest camera producer of Japan is regular customer. The abilities of Akida just cry for the use you mentioned. I also see this as a hot possibility.