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insights into life at that time rely on researchers’ imaginations

Where is this 600M years taken from? big claims based on assumptions, I don't like this kind of science, building on too many assumptions and you are going too far from the truth and this is the opposite of what science tries to achieve.

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Since the researcher was reconstructing the evolution of a protein I would say the date was determined using a technique called the molecular clock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clock

That and the rise of multi-cellular life marks the beginning of the Cambrian explosion (542M years ago). That gives 60M years for the mutation to spread and specialize.

The Cambrian explosion is late in this game; this would be about the emergence of the Ediacaran biota (largely fractal-like body plans, followed by organisms with more specialised structural groups and less-local symmetries) and simpler aggregate colony organisms like sponges, which seemed to come out of nowhere quickly after the Cryogenian. The Cambrian explosion seems to have been mostly about riffing on the bilateral symmetry lick.

Where is this 600M years taken from?

I didn't read the paper, but probably this technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_clock

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