WeWork's "delusion", in my view, was the amount of value they perceived themselves to add to the equation. On the consumer facing side, they were billing their space as some mass facilitator, incubator, and inspiration for startups, freelancers, and what-not. On the business side, it was that WeWork would be beneficial to landlords, as they'd snatch up large swaths of space, drive businesses desire to "colocate", and offer flexibility to tenants that didn't have things in place to deal with the expanding real estate needs of their business.

Fundamentally though, WeWork was a middle man, and one that shifted as much liability towards the landlords as possible. While you can debate how much value they added, I don't think it's a stretch to say that their valuation far exceeded the actual value they brought to the table. Fundamentally though, space is far more of a commodity than WeWork would have you believe, and in an economy situation where people aren't co-working or that there's a lot of unleased space on the market, WeWork's proposition is certainly depleted.

Combine the inflated view of their value with feel-good marketing about changing the world, unrealistic valuations and shadiness from the founders and ownership, and you get a company that went far beyond where they should have and duped a number of investors along the way.