People see the SEC as an evil entity, but it's not. They have a $4 trillion market to protect. Bitcoin is nothing. Why would they allow it to enter that market to begin with? They don't need a Bitcoin ETF, it's people here that want them to approve an ETF hoping that the price will pump hard.
You're exactly correct, though nobody wants to hear this. A couple weeks back one of the SEC commissioners had this to say about their role and why it was important for them to take their time on making a decision:
"Getting the stamp of approval from the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world is hard, and it should be.. Once we put the stamp of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on an investment, once we make it available to everyday mom and pop investors, we are taking risks that Americans can get hurt…
The case that we had before us last year involving the Winklevoss trust, in my view, was not a difficult case… So there you had a situation where the risk for manipulation and for people getting hurt was enormous. The liquidity issues in the market were very serious… Eventually, do I think someone will satisfy the standards that we’ve laid out there? I hope so, yes, and I think so.” – Robert J Jackson, SEC Commissioner
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/the-future-holds-cryptocurrency-based-funds-says-secs-jacksonIt does sound like they are optimistic on an ETF's eventual prospects, but when the approval date will happen, who knows...