Thank for the ask! As for my thoughts, the thing is that she doesn’t know what’s in there. No one has any idea of what’s in the black box until Simon gets to it and downloads it, and that’s why it’s so important.

In this universe, they know absolutely nothing about what’s going on and I do mean nothing. Why the stars and planets disappeared, what happened to them, why these moons have blood oceans or what is hidden in their depths, zilch! This is truly “throw spaghetti and see what sticks” territory for them. Any information they gain is more than they had a moment before, and thus valuable, even if the information is “nothing has changed.” When the entire universe throws you a curveball that breaks with every rule you thought you knew, you gotta make sure even things that you might take for granted still apply. That’s science, baby!

We (along with Simon) hear from the SM-8 crew audio that they intended to synthetize food from the blood, and we can infer that the sub was sent to figure out if it was possible and viable to do. For all we know, they no longer have the fine lab tech to examine the blood chemistry and composition since Ava said they “can’t replicate the tech anymore”. This might be the key to feeding everyone, that could be a huge win for the COI, and Eden too!! That’s one vital resource they no longer need to fight over, that’s hope!

The black box may not be the key to saving humanity, but it could be! Even beyond a source of food, it could explain far more of what happened with the Quiet Rapture and what rules the universe is working under, because again, any information is valuable information when you have no information. But she can’t know unless she gets the black box data. It could be nothing, but it could also be everything.

In the face of utter despair and hopelessness, you HAVE to assume this is worth the risk. You might regret paying so high for nothing, but you will regret far more not paying any price for everything. The fact that this could save everyone needs to be treated as a certainty until proven otherwise.