Rudimentary Firearms & Late Game Age of Discovery
So I know guns in AtE have been an often discussed topic, but most of the time I think people are discussing modern machined firearms. The common excuse is that, without an industrial base, firearms that we have today could not be made. In that I agree. What doesn't make sense though is why we couldn't have pre-industrial firearms considering that rudimentary firearms have existed in Europe and China well within the confines of the medieval period.
Guns are like Pandora's box; once you discover how to make them, the design premise is so simple that even a agragrian societies can make anything from rudimentary hand cannons to 18th century level guns without industrialization. Metal tube plus gunpower plus object as ammo. It can't really be unlearned.
Obviously we must have contrivances like these to make the medieval setting/portion of after the end work, but could a age of discovery late game work? We already can discover bombards, why not arquebuses (superpowered archers)? What is your headcannon as to why pre-industrial guns don't exist?