You are speculating.
Heljan announced CAD in June. Peco were already in production in June. Hornby announced the launch months later. No CAD, no samples, nothing.
If Hornby had been planning this in advance, why was there no mention in their 2022 range? Or any mention at all before now?
It stinks, that's why.
I'm not saying that Hornby were not working on this the past five years, as you claim, just that there is no evidence nor indicators of the same. We can only judge based on what we know.