Your “smoking gun” turned out to be a cap pistol. Sondland qualified his testimony by saying that it was his opinion or perception, which no more than what Schiff has been calling “facts” all along.
Sondland qualified that he is not an attorney, but that he believed it was a quid pro quo, according to Luskin.
It's rather why I have been confused myself. I heard the statement he made and didn't understand why it was being carried as though it were a statement of fact.