Not from Barstow myself - Shropshire, UK - but I've been following Route 58 sightings for a while now and last Tuesday's reports are interesting because at least three independent accounts I've seen mention the same thing: a formation that held its shape for well over a minute before splitting. That kind of sustained coherent movement in multiple witness reports is what separates the serious cases from weather balloons and drone clusters in my experience.
The splitting behaviour specifically reminds me of the 2017 Mojave corridor incidents. Anyone who was there last Tuesday, can you say whether the lights maintained equal spacing during the split, or did the formation sort of collapse before reforming? That detail matters more than people realise when you're trying to rule out conventional explanations.
Would love to hear from anyone who actually had eyes on it. What direction were they tracking?