Since I am not in the back rooms, I can only speculate as to why the process has been soft-pedalled to now.

With 30% of American solidly behind the R's, the decision makers were hoping this political/social force would dissipate somewhat. Richard Nixon resigned when the higher level Republicans told him that he no longer had support from the party. Maybe the same thing could have happened after January 6. But it didn't. So now it's time for the D's to start playing hard ball.

But there is no guarantee this hard ball tactic will work. When 30% is thinking in an undemocratic way . . . . .

Whether the USA bumbles along with its democracy or the R's do take "full control" for a short time, the USA still needs to build a new democracy.

https://medium.com/discourse/tiered-democratic-governance-3f36a8f45660