Well, the "simple setup" is not itself suitable as a power source....but it is MORE than sufficient to test whether LANR as a physical phenomenon exists or not. The key question is why was the data buried/ignored "for 20+ years". Note that in the study, the authors suggest a VERY innovative and simple approach to using their discovery to generate power. Yet that was not followed up on.
"Oh that's right, an agency of the most powerful government in the world is being blocked by a conspiracy of incompetents."
Hardly incompetents. Quite powerful people in the "hot physics" community were and are behind it. Denial of finding, denial of academic tenure, denial of publication by control of peer review. Well documented by Steve Krivit (since you appear to like his investigative reporting).
But, of course, you will continue in your state of willful ignorance, and not check any of this out for yourself.
Well, what does that tell any reasonably sane person who doesn't resort to conspiracy theories? It says there's nothing there.
Fusion as a phenomenon by itself is no big deal. High school students have achieved it in their garages. Hot fusion gets attention because it's useful in addition to being supported by accepted theory. Hot fusion is used for weapons, and it's a natural process relevant to astrophysics and cosmology. So it should be no surprise to a rational person that hot fusion gets the most attention.
Then there is muon catalyzed cold fusion. It was predicted by theory before it was observed in nature and reproduced by experiments. However, muon fusion doesn't come close to producing as much energy as what goes into it. It's not as useful to physics as hot fusion, so once again, a rational person isn't surprised that it gets little attention.
Then there is all other claimed types of cold fusion (or LENR, or LANR, which are no more than the Shakespearean renamings of a stink bug). Cold fusion has no accepted theory that can withstand scrutiny. Even if the claimed anomalies are real, they are unpredictable, and thus not useful for commerce or any significant portion of science. We should see very few mentions of cold fusion compared to hot fusion. Yet on FR, thanks to the nutbag section (you and Kevmo) we see hundreds if not thousands of such postings. It makes conservatives look out of touch with reality and untrustworthy.
If there is one use for cold fusion, it is to provide a core for a mutual admiration society of washed up scientists, scammers, and crackpot wannabe victims who like to blame a conspiracies for their failures.