Why does the young universe have so many cluster seeds?

JWST's sharp infrared vision has spotted far more protoclusters at z>5—the seeds of today's galaxy clusters—than current theory allows. The excess challenges standard cold dark matter predictions and suggests either our selection methods are flawed or simulations miss early structure formation. Careful re-analysis shows many overdensities may not actually grow into clusters, but they still mark extreme cosmic web nodes that shape early reionization and star formation.