The sock with the beetles would not have been a dead loss. Beetles eat a huge variety of foods, because they have intestinal fauna just like a cow. But the fauna would be different to a cow. I hear each time a beetles intestinal contents is studied, new varieties of yeast are discovered.
Bringing the sock of beetles back and giving them some more rice to inoculate with beetle intestinal fauna in hole, would have benefits. I just couldn't specify what they'd be.