However, Simeon only declared what he had experienced.
I wonder why you make light of his vision, in saying "only." Peter was the first Apostle to convert Jews, and then Gentiles (without them first converting to Judaism).
To say that this was a ruling simply ignores the text.
I didn't say that it was.
Which is to say that they listened to Peter.
But who's judgment was it?
The Church's.
Nothing came after James made the judgment.
So? You've got your take, and I've got mine. There is no church built upon James, but there very definitely is one built upon Peter.
Besides, I think you're reading into the Acts 15 account a bit. Who was this James? He wasn't an Apostle (James the Apostle was murdered in Acts 12), this was somebody else. Are you suggesting (I don't think you are, but to be thorough I'll ask) that the Apostles were not the "heavies" in the Church? There were still 11 of them in Acts 15. Do you think that James could have judged against Peter and the other Apostles? Do you believe that he or any other non-Apostle had that kind of authority? Because I don't, but it looks as if you are suggesting that this was the case.
If Peter and the other apostles didn't see Jesus as making Peter the head of the Church in Matthew, then we cannot make that assumption, either, short of some other declaration in Scripture.
I agree . . . "IF." But what you are presenting is that the IF is true, and I cannot find that in the Scripture. Instead, whenever the Apostle John penned his Gospel, which was after Peter had departed (Jn21:19), and so it was during either Linus's or Anacletus's papal reign as archbishop of the particular church (diocese) in the city of Rome---depending upon when John wrote his Gospel---he had the perfect opportunity to dispel a rumor or false belief that Peter was in fact the supreme pastor of our Lord's Church, and that Peter's successors were legitimate; being the last living Apostle.
Instead of invalidating the papacy with his Apostolic authority, which he could have done, and would have done, if the Holy See was indeed a creation of man rather than our Lord's own idea, John introduced a new account: John 21 in which our Lord interrogated Peter on the beach, and told him to "Feed," "Tend," and, "Feed" (Jn21:15,16,17).
I don't know what you think of that, but this in combination with Matthew 16:18-19 and with the historical fact of the papacy's primacy (Clement's epistle to the Corinthians confirms that Rome's archbishop was seen before the close the of the first century as supreme) leads me to believe that the Holy Catholic version of events is the right one.