I am very impressed to see your LUCA article. I have been immersed for decades following the "metabolism-first“ school of origins of life (vs the traditional "RNA -first" school long considered a key part of biology's Central Dogma story).
The key citation of this article is William Martin & Michael J Russell's On the origin of biochemistry at an alkaline hydrothermal vent. It was Russell, in the wake of the 1979 discovery by Jack Corliss et al of high-temperature, ultra-low pH, acidic hydrothermal "black smoker" vents off the Galapagos Islands [shown in the photo of the giant red and white tube worm in your article], who hypothesized the existence of lower-temperature, higher-ph alkaline "white smokers" that would have been essential for the first formation of molecules to catalyze the emergence of life.
[BTW, the photo caption says the worms "feed on archaea" but actually they co-exist symbiotically, and technically the giant gutless tube worms are "fed by archaea" (i.e., feed on the archaea’s "excretions") in return for the worms providing protective "housing" for the archaea to survive - https://ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/deep-sea/microbes-keep-hydrothermal-vents-pumping ].
As the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology explains, "A white smoker fluids are cooler [100°C] than those emitted by black smokers (360°C-400°C] and are sited away, or “off-axis,” from the mid-ocean ridges. A notable example is Lost City, a hydrothermal vent field in the central Atlantic Ocean [discovered in 2000, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_City_Hydrothermal_Field]. Interaction of downward seeping seawater with mafic or ultramafic rocks produces an alkaline fluid that precipitates silica and Ba or Ca sulfates when it mixes with seawater, hence the white color."
The metabolism-first (prior to RNA-first) theorists, empiricists & experimentalists are a riveting group of brilliant scientists. In addition to Martin & Russell, several others well worth reading include biochemist Nick Lane [https://nick-lane.net/], pioneering biophysicist Harold Morowitz [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_J._Morowitz], and Santa Fe Institute polymath Eric J. Smith [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cwvj0XBKlE]. Indeed, Eric Smith and Harold Morowitz have published one of the most comprehensive books on the subject well worth reading despite its heft and fine-grained details - The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth (The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere) -- https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26598904-the-origin-and-nature-of-life-on-earth
