Exactly. Whatever they were doing with their sagebrush mush, they weren’t using it for food. I know a guy who had an infected bite when he was a kid. His granny made him drink sagebrush tea. He held it down for almost 4 seconds before losing it, but his infection finally cleared up.
In the southwest, typically I would think of maize, squash, and maybe amaranth or quinoa.
I bet the paticular site they found the safebrush seeds and flour was a medicine man’s place given the shortcomings and uses of sagebrush. Medicine man, shaman, whatever they had back then. It would be interesting to see what other ‘weird things’ they find there.