That's what I've been thinking for a while now... considering what happens here with some frequency — mind games, repeated tests, exchanging participants or bringing them back again — I'd be surprised if it wasn't a test. Especially now that it's confirmed it's a virtual reality rather than something genuinely, physically harmful.
[ Psychologically harmful... plenty of that. ]
I've been here for over 200 days and I still don't know what they're after. Every time a pattern starts to emerge, they do something new.