Hard science leads where few want to tread. The evidence that Neanderthal and Homo Sapien are genetically identical is remarkable research. Stick that in your evolution pipe.
Fill the pipe with empty space? I don’t believe anyone ever said that modern humans evolved from neanderthals. Neanderthals have always been seen as existing along side of modern man, but as a dead end genetic variant in the tree. They were a physical variant of modern man that before modern genetic research were thought to be a genetically different line of modern humans. They are not and never have been; more along the lines of a racial variation of modern man.