> They aren't being actively "designed" in any sense

The point made by GP is that the current mRNA vaccines are actively designed to illicit a highly targeted immune response targeted towards the spike protein [1].

> That's why anything that would make real progress has to happen quickly and broadly, without large left-out pockets

Assuming you mean 100% vaccine coverage, this is the opposite conclusion that the authors of this paper came to [1].

Citing [1]:

- "The speed at which nAb resistance develops in the population increases substantially as the number of infected individuals increases, suggesting that complementary strategies to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission that exert specific pressure on other proteins (e.g., antiviral prophylactics) or that do not exert a specific selective pressure on the virus (e.g., high-efficiency air filtration, masking, ultraviolet air purification) are key to reducing the risk of immune escape"

- "Strategies for viral elimination should therefore be diversified across molecular targets and therapeutic modalities"

[1] Risk of rapid evolutionary escape from biomedical interventions targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33909660/