Mercury’s orbit

I wasn’t talking about Astronomy at all.

Lorentz transformation

That was needed only for the end results. Not in the introductory thoughts that I was talking about.

Fizeau’s experiment, the fact that the speed of light is the same

Good point here. That was in fact one of the starting points for Einstein.

There was no way special relativity could’ve been found even half a century earlier

Again you are looking at the end results only, when the theory was complete.

Have you even read my comment?

Have you even read Einstein?