I actually did have a full numbered action dedicated to studying the effects of SD. IIRC, I was going to take a large number of the wunderkinders and shove them into intentionally sabotaged stasis machines while they were still toddlers. I had no idea whether they'd come out fully affected by SD, or just dead, so I kept the action secret to avoid Nik messing with it. I can go dig up the PM if you're curious.
Also, Emp, Saint fully believes that he is affected by SD, and he said as much in that message. It's the only logical explanation why he's so skilled at Tinker and general admin-ship, despite his backstory giving no hint of any such skills. He believes that either SD grants the abilities observed in ARM operatives (as indicated by Freeman's ability being supernatural, and by how 4 has physical evidence of her past tattooed on her), or everyone always had those abilities, were deliberately kidnapped because of them, and the SD was just used to make them forget their true histories and loyalties (As shown by how the dossiers are apparently subconciously written by the people they're about, how the supernatural abilities of SD didn't start appearing until M1, and how the supernatural effects aren't observed in any group of people aside from ARM (though that could be due to specially designed stasis machines, and Saint has suspicions that alternative explanations are possible)).
The experiments I was gonna run were meant to define which explanation was correct. Wunderkinders don't gain superpowers from being put in stasis machines? Then SD isn't what grants the powers, it's just the catalyst or entirely irrelevant. Or, the effect can't be replicated without spending centuries on it, which is really just a setback for Saint. He does intend to live forever, after all.