Remember that in order to request a decision from a court, you must have an actual case or controversy. Meaning someone has to have been damaged in some way from the conduct complained of. Otherwise the courts have no jurisdiction over the matter. Of course there is the possibility of seeking an advisory opinion, if allowed, but that is a matter of state laws and states differ on the allowability of that. The USSC is not allowed to issue advisory opinions. This is what they are talking about when they say a case is “not ripe.”
When the USSC saw the case in October, it was not ripe yet and the Court ordered the ballots be separated, which was the least onerous way to preserve a remedy in this dispute if in fact it is found that someone was actually damaged by the illegal standards later. This happened because the USSC could not hear or decide on the writ of cert about the illegal standards before he actual election as there had been no damage yet.
They did not formally accept the Writ of Cert nor did they deny the writ. The case is ripe now.
Technically, the case may not fully ripen until the SOS certifies the results. In theory at least, Trump could still win PA, which would moot the case.
Shrinking the time to do anything about it might be a strategic play on the SOS’s part not just in PA but in the other close states, which is why we haven’t seen any official certifications yet.