Separating the Ark’s seemingly cosmic powers, leaving just an inanimate object, might better satisfy those reluctant to publicly entertain thoughts of its existence for fear of personal ridicule. When relying on the findings of an academically oriented, scientific community, with the skill-set to optimise research requirements, one shouldn’t be too dismissive of such concerns.
However, it would be a foregone failure to undertake such an expedition in the first place by avoiding taking into account the full records of the Ark’s inanimate and qualitative components. The solution is to take a parallel route of investigating both the physical and metaphysical attributes of the Ark of the Covenant, and later seeing possible avenues of alignment between the two.