Comparing Routes to Complex Adaptation

This corrected preprint presents its research question, method, bounded result, and principal limitations in a standardized reader-facing format. Complex traits can arise through many combinations of mutation, standing variation, recombination, sequential fixation, stochastic tunneling, gene and genome duplication, horizontal transfer, developmental plasticity, and state-dependent cellular processes. A seeded Wright-Fisher illustration shows how allowing inherited intermediates and multiple mutation orders changes waiting times and makes them depend on population size, mutation supply, fitness landscape, and the chosen endpoint. A target-set formulation, explicit censoring likelihood, nonexclusive route mixture, and randomized COT contrast make the inferential requirements auditable. The simulation is not an estimate for any real trait. The paper's durable contribution is a model and evidence discipline: route hypotheses must be nonexclusive, parameterized, and linked to distinct observables, interventions, and falsifiers. It belongs to the Super Evolution Theory and constrained adaptation research program. This is a corrected preprint edition released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.