I had a work-study job in college at our small local airport working for the FAA. I mostly clipped new FAA communications into 3-ring binders and tore off expired ticker tape weather reports for a couple of hours a day.
My boss was old school government employee, straight and square. One day we were talking and he handed me a FAA business card with a UFO reporting 800 phone number. Odd I thought, and put it in my wallet.
Years later I lost my wallet in a phone booth (am old). I got a call from someone who found my wallet and wanted to return it. He came over with the wallet which had everything still in it, including cash. The only thing missing was the UFO card. I've never seen another one.
I'm on-board with the "they've always been there" position. I do think they have their uses though. We don't actually know how good China's spy satellites are, so that alone could justify sending out a balloon to observe a few key locations. Besides, balloons are so much cheaper, and how we go about shooting one down could be the info they're meant to gather in the first place. That could mean observing our weapons and reaction times, or by agents within the military observing how that information is collected and acted upon. Hell, in 2023, both sides are probably collecting information on how we react to it.