Whether or not there is at least some discretion in the hands of the VPrexy was an open question, and, because Pence took the ceremonial route, remains an open question.
Reasonable minds can disagree. Senator Scott’s obviously did.
At least in This Guy’s opinion.
There is pretty much no doubt, Pence could have refused to count the electors that had been officially selected and sent by the states. But I think he thought better of it, as there wasn't really any evidence that hadn't already been presented at the state level, as the official state electors were being chosen, to justify him refusing the count their votes. Nothing that I know of has come out since then, either, to justify him not counting the official state electors.
And I'm not saying you feel this way, but most who wanted Pence to block the electoral college vote count, think that the election would have somehow then been magically overturned. But why would they think that, when now several years later there's still nothing concrete that shows votes were illegally taken from Trump, and/or given to Biden. It may be probable that votes were phony, but you have to have proof of guilt in America, it's a bedrock principle (a good one to boot).
I think it's pretty obvious had Pence blocked the electoral college vote count, without sufficient evidence that the states hadn't already heard, both he and Trump would have been immediately impeached so the electoral count could continue, at least by the next day. They impeached Trump anyway for simply calling the protest that got out of hand.
So what people are saying they actually wanted - Pence to block the electoral college from proceeding - would have ended up a lot worse for Trump than it already has, since the actual evidence is still scant that Biden's votes were fraudulent. There was clearly a ripe environment for fraud, but that is not the same as proving any fraud actually took place. And only by concrete proof will any elections be overturned.