I think one of the very common errors surrounding Musk is ascribing him too much credit. Musk does something dumb and people shout "he's playing 4d chess!". I think there is a heuristic at play here - which is that he's a billionaire and therefore a genius. But it goes against another heuristic - when people tell you who they are, believe them. Musk just has a very simplistic approach to this problem, he doesn't understand the issues and hasn't shown any interest in learning. So yeah, he can run a company employing smart people who use massive government subsidies to build rocket ships and he can also be a silly petulaent child. Both those things can be true. It doesn't need to be part of something bigger. Listen to an hour of the All-In podcast and you'll very quickly understand the dumb, lazy thinking that went into this acquisition.