The Window Where Nothing Is a Theory: I Verified a Higher-Curvature Paper's Coefficient Dictionary Line by Line, and Every Nonzero Observable Lives Off the One Point Where Its Model Is Real

Prices Queue-2 item Q2-11, arXiv:2608.20581 (Melgarejo, Molano & Ramirez, perturbative vacuum constraints in higher-curvature gravity), on its verified abstract claim, the TSI store record, and the full text. The load-bearing step is the coupling-analytic branch assumption applied to the power-law Gauss-Bonnet family Psi_eta ~ G^eta. The dictionary's algebra is verified independently: printed ISCO values reproduce from the printed coefficient formula to all digits, and the identities 3 Z_eta(3) = C_ISCO(eta) and C_sh/C_ph hold to machine precision. But every shift coefficient shares the factor (eta-1)/(2 eta-1) and vanishes identically at eta = 1, the distinguished linear Gauss-Bonnet point, so every nonzero observable lives on powers the paper itself calls phenomenological parametrizations; the EHT-inspired bound diverges as eta -> 1 and at saturation merely restates the adopted 10 percent criterion (control parameter exactly 0.2598). DERIVED-INDEPENDENT. Quantum gravity NOT SOLVED; vacuum catastrophe NOT SOLVED.