Sly Cookin
based
This pretty much sums up my view on on what transpired. I really like your point on the time loop aspect.They do not go both ways.. He's stuck in a time loop
They completed this mission or someone did. They got to the planet that Grant ended up on and they started the process of recreating humanity. Humans there, with help from studying the black hole, figured out space and time manipulation but couldn't pinpoint when EXACTLY to go to, to change the events of the past
So they create this machine inside the hole for Cooper. They know he flew the mission because him and Grant made it there. He goes in, discovers what they left him (like the wormhole) and pinpoints the time and the person and what to give her. The data from the black hole. She uses it to solve gravity, and then the loop is broken, but now with old humans on the ship and new humans being created on Brand's planet that will start the loop.
We just happen to be watching the movie mid loop, But the events of the loop (the crash, the drone, the farm machines, the ghost) are already happening because the beginning of the loop happened a long time ago to those in the future
And that's why this movie is GOAT... Takes you about 10 times to really grasp it and then watch it again and you still find new shyt
This my favorite movie