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Bingo. If it was not going to get seen by the public we (the public) probably wouldn't know about it. They wouldn't tell us about it unless there was some useful political reason to do so. The idea that the military only knows things when we do is ludicrous and naïve.
For the second time in my life, the USA has been mesmerized by a news story about a balloon. >

Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice, right? >

To be fair, the balloon boy one was weirder. A “spy balloon” feels a little more appropriate to be concerned about. But it’s 2023, who uses a balloon? >

That's the part that doesn't add up about all this. The Chinese have satellites. This stupid balloon couldn't have been accomplishing much, so what even was the point? ICBM sites aren't really secret.
People will bring up "testing our defenses" or some shit, but for what? If they'd thought it was a real threat, it would've been shot down before it ever left Alaska. None of it makes any sense. >

Well… they get to see how long it took us to notice  them. Also, just because we aren’t sure what this thing can do doesn’t mean we take their word for it that it’s nothing. Their batshit response doesn’t suggest it’s nothing. I hope we recover useful bits from the downed balloon.
Edit: I am not making conclusions about how long or not long it took us to notice. Only saying that might be a motivation for this weird Chinese balloon shenanigans. >

Just because we didn't go public with it at first doesn't mean it wasn't tracked from the start. We literally have radars in Hawaii and the Aleutian islands that can spot targets the size of seagulls from thousands of miles away, and distinguish between that target and background noise or even active countermeasures. We absolutely noticed it days before it crossed into CONUS airspace, and the only reason the government said anything was because it was going to get noticed by the public. Source: I used to help design security measures for radar systems like the SBX in Hawaii and the TPY-2 theater air defense radars.