The notion that it leaked from a lab was never "OFF LIMITS".
The notion that it must have been a genetically engineered bioweapon was off limits, based on data, and Trumptards continued to confuse "lab leak" with "bioweapon" as being synonymous descriptions. They are not, and never have been.
Some human likely accidentally breathed in dust containing the virus in animal dung, be it bat dung or another animal that carried the virus, after having been infected by a bat.
Where did this likely occur? A cave, maybe. A wet market, maybe. A lab intern not wearing a mask while changing the bedding/ cage paper in a research facility housing animals? Maybe. The third scenario is by far the most common lab leak scenario. Poor animal handling practices. It happens in the USA, in China, everywhere. People take shortcuts. People mess up. The people hired to change the cage paper are not necessarily well-trained. It is a menial job.
A less likely lab leak scenario is that the virus was cultured in the lab and was then spilled, somehow, and accidentally breathed in, making the lab workers sick. This is less likely, since viral cultures (hard to do, in the first place) would be done under biocontainment level 3 protocols by people much more highly trained than those people changing animal cage bedding in the vivarium (the research animal care facility).
The still less likely lab leak scenario involves directed manipulation and intentional release. There isn't really any evidence for this, it makes no sense to unleash the bioweapon on the people in your own building or town, and it makes no sense to have chosen in the first place this type of virus as your bioweapon.