I guess I can't get past this notion that 'everyone' is allegedly mistaken.
I'm sure you're right in that some of the sightings will be of drones, because many people fly drones, not all responsibly. I think many posters here are as interested in why this has become a flap as they are in debunking individual photos/ vids.
If drones are something to be legitimately alarmed about*, maybe they shouldn't be sold to pretty much anyone who wants one for a few hundred dollars.
What seems unusual in this flap is that some photos/ footage of what are very
clearly conventional aircraft, often on known flightpaths as demonstrated by other posters here, are being treated by so many people as evidence of unusual drone activity.
Other lights in the sky might also be misidentified, and we've seen a (fixed!) marker on power lines presented as a mystery drone.
There is no evidence of an organised mass use of drones for a specific purpose in New Jersey, although I wouldn't be surprised if a few pranksters are getting in on the act.
None of the reported drones appear to have harmed anyone or anything, so apart from visual recce it's hard to see what use they might be to a "bad actor". The numbers and locations of reported sightings, plus the supposed use of lights on the drones, must make hostile reconnaissance an unlikely explanation.
The Chinese or whatever probably aren't
that interested in the suburbs and roads of New Jersey.
I'll make a prediction for 2025: No reliable imagery of a truly remarkable drone will emerge from these events. There will be no clear footage of car-sized drones of unknown origin. There will be no evidence of hostile military spec. UAV use in or around New Jersey.
UFO secrecy is prioritized over air defense
Considering the sums spent, R&D efforts made, training required and the sheer scale of American air defence assets (C3I, radar, air defence missiles, F-22 etc. etc.) I would be surprised if US Government spend and resources allocated to UFO investigation since 1947 is anywhere even remotely near 0.1% of military air defense spending.
*Would add, I personally think the
potential for even quite modest off-the-shelf drones to be used for seriously harmful purposes is widely underestimated, but I don't see any signs of such use in the current NJ flap.