Good question. Professor Kaczynski has commented on the difficulty of finding suitable venues for such activity. And he was a resident of Montana, where they do have wide open spaces.
They had to be tested somewhere
Not necessarily. Little Boy worked as designed, despite never having been tested, and killed ninety to 166 thousand people (accurate casualty figures are hard to com by, since many of the victims were cremated in the firestorm). Of course, Speed Bump and Joker were not exactly Manhattan Project material, but then, neither were their bombs.
The analogy is not quite fair. Little Boy’s forerunner was tested.
Good summary, thank you. And thanks for the much needed laugh, your way with words is great!