Well sometime around 2003 we found what looked like a repeating pattern in WMAP data that indicated that the universe might be shaped like a Poincare dodecahedral space, which is why we were investigating these models. There was some observational evidence of a non-trivial topology that required further investigation and that investigation isn't finished yet.

If you were in charge, would you have said the shape is too implausible to investigate, bearing in mind that we already had some data that seemed to indicate that shape?