A question that I've not seen addressed: The Sea Peoples showed up, raided, invaded, really successfully. Why didn't they stay? Why did they go back to wherever they came from? Isn't that what the Vikings were doing in Britain (also Normandy?) for a while before they decided to stay there?
The most likely scenario is there were immigrants fleeing their homelands for a better life.
The problem with history is we just up and belief what the rules say is true. We know from centuries of more detailed records that is simply not true but when it comes to ancient civilizations we just wholesale accept it.
"Look the despot wrote it down a dozen times, it must be true! Propaganda is beyond their level of cleverness of those silly stone chiselers!"
The work historians do is ceases to be science the moment they start filling in the blanks.
Bro what do you think science is? You interpolate, then seek evidence that your interpolation was bad, and if you can’t find such evidence then you accept your interpolation as good.
The study of history is done by many, many different people over many, many centuries. It would be illogical to say that just because some make a certain mistake, all do.
Additionally, you cannot say nothing changes when the understanding of history constantly changes, as our archeological abilities steadily improve.
Lastly, even scientists need to fill in blanks sometimes. Einstein was rather famous for filling in some critical blanks in Newtonian physics, for instance.
The problem with history is we just up and belief what the [rulers] say is true.
I think that's what you meant? If so - no "we" don't. Actual historians are well aware of the possibility (probability?) of ancient propaganda, take that into account when coming to conclusions, and don't claim that something is true beyond what the evidence demonstrates.
Not a historian, but my understanding is that there was widespread crop failure, which led to many people fleeing to major cities to search for a better way of life. Many of these people traveled by boat, which led the home country to view them as sea people. The influx of immigrants further strained the dwindling resources of the home country due to the aforementioned crop failures, which then led to a collapse of many of the cities. Which in turn caused more people to flee to other cities
So to answer your question, I don't think the sea people were really even a singular group people, it's just an umbrella term for immigrants that were fleeing from their home