CISA's new nomination form for direct KEV submissions from researchers marks an underreported pivot toward distributed intelligence gathering, extending beyond the Record's surface-level announcement. While the agency frames this as operationalizing partnerships, it addresses a critical gap: prior email-only channels lacked transparency metrics, allowing commercial tools like those from Qualys to eclipse the catalog as leading indicators. Drawing on CISA's 2021 KEV launch data and patterns from MITRE ATT&CK mappings, this evolution counters AI-accelerated exploitation by nation-state actors targeting critical infrastructure, where remediation rates for KEV entries already run 3.5x faster. Mainstream coverage misses the geopolitical angle—faster validation loops could blunt Chinese and Russian campaigns against U.S. networks, as seen in recent Volt Typhoon activity. Guardrails against false positives remain untested, risking catalog dilution if unverified reports flood in. Synthesizing the Record piece with CISA's historical KEV growth reports and Qualys analyses on AI-driven vulns, the policy strengthens federal-private fusion without new mandates, a subtle power shift toward proactive defense.