I understand, but from my reading of the article, it looks like all of this is the inital badBIOS module

But on the topic of modular malware, what would the initial discovery of Flame look like, if it were still in-progress after 3 years? Would it or would it not seem like this? It's got odd transmission methods, and the possibility of more to come. But if deleting data, self protection, and propogation aren't the attacks, then what are?