its one thing to say "we dont know"

it's a different thing to say "it's mathematically impossible"

so if it turns out it is possible, what then? was math broken? or the researcher an idiot who either doesnt know math, or is just bullshitting non-existing proofs?

Mathematics doesn't tell you what is necessarily true. It consists of guessing about what is necessarily true.

(I don't know the details of what happened, it could be either or neither of the things you said.)