I can live with that. It's a significant backstep from the earlier claims of bodies of longstanding liquid water.

It isn't really "water", either - closer to battery acid.

I respect Andrew H. Knoll. He wrote "Oxygen", which is an excellent read for life on the early Earth. His reported observations in this latest paper are that life as we know it could not evolve de novo in Meridiani conditions, but might adapt to them. This is quite an important data point. Cross reference that to the ESA work on an early wettish Mars with clays forming and then a later drier and acidic Mars as the water froze out. It gives life on Mars a possible route from origin through toehold to final extinction, or relegation to rare subterranean acid water pools.

Mars is getting drier, or at least our understanding of it is...

I won't say "I told you so."

Oh, I just did!