They gave business owners a billion dollars in low-interest loans, then immediately forgave them. This was a direct payout too. Even though these funds were supposed to be used for paycheck protection (hence the name, Paycheck Protection Program), it seems that a lot of executives used the funds to finance personal bonuses because when it became clear that they wouldn't even need to use them to pay salaries.

That's pretty different from buying up $700MM in government bonds and mortgage-backed securities, because that's something the government generally does anyway, and doing so merely provides liquidity for institutions who serve as intermediaries of these debts.