Interesting points!
If you look at the protein data alone, there are no recovered variants that support these samples being very divergent from modern humans, e.g. 'H.erectus like'. For comparison, the H.antecessor enamel had a variant, placing it as an outgroup to nean, deni, and present day humans
(Y|G)iannis P.
I feel a little heretical in saying that the headlines may say Homo erectus, but the Denisovan connection is pointing me a different direction. The connections over time within China are an old topic, and protein data has made them resurface again.
www.johnhawks.net/p/rethinking...
Mixture demonstrated for old fossil teeth hints that anthropologists may have mixed ideas.