I'd sooner trust the words of an expert in the field doing the trajectory tracing or involved in it than a senator tbh
Balloons are better than satellites for a number of reasons, all of which are outlined in the interview by Amir. We know this is a fact because China is or has been doing exactly that.
Balloons are:
- Cheaper, can be deployed any time anywhere and nobody would ever know until one is spotted floating in the sky days/weeks later
-Can have much more detailed payloads
-Communicate discreetly with operatives on the ground below them and not be detected/intercepted
-Stealth to regular radar because of their size, but visible when filters are removed but then are amongst the clutter of noise so may still be missed as the agencies sift through the noise now
It's the Occam's razor approach to spying, the simplest solution is the most effective. Nobody knows what these 4 balloons shot down captured because the US shot them down with missiles, only the first balloon had obvious solar panels so was clearly storing power and likely sending/receiving comms, but as it was blown to smithereens, nobody will know what it had onboard other than the photos captured of it before it got shot.