I wonder what the outcome would have been here if the author just turned this into a game of chicken with the host.

It sounds like the host said "You can't have this reservation you made", the author said "Okay, I'll cancel", and the host said "Whoops too late".

Since the host is the one who was requesting that cancellation, I'd be curious what would have happened if the author replied with "You can cancel the reservation if you can't fulfill it, not a problem".

Obviously no ruling out that AirBNB wouldn't just charge the author and not give access to the property, but seems like at least a higher probability of success.