Yes, agree…I dont see much new there other than getting a group of experts together to agree on something, which is often one of life’s little miracles in and of itself!
The issue here is the lack of appropriate terminology methinks. I don’t think ‘sentience’ is really the point (assuming it is referring to the ability to note a sensory input without further ‘processing’). In my cogitation on this topic, it seems to me that volitional decision making based on greed hatred and delusion (or other bases) is the issue. Automaton-like reacting to a sensory input is different to making a conscious decision to think, speak or do based on that sensory input. Western science hasnt caught up with how to investigate the mental paradigm.
I have heard Bhikkhus say that things you can see might be ‘living’ whereas microscopic things are not considered ‘living’ things (e.g., using antibiotics doesn’t breach the 1st precept, whereas insecticide does). This seemed quite arbitrary to me, but I didnt have a better option, but looking into it the smallest thing that has a nervous system (ie could be expected to be able to sense something and then have some volitional decision making potential based on that sensation) would be a tapeworm…which you can see. Bacteria and giardia and single cell organisms dont have a nervous system.
Do you need a nervous system to have volition? No idea, but seems like it would be more likely that you might…