Is the payment for the service of gold check consideration, or for a gold check?
Perhaps that question is where surprise comes from.
Like Evel Knievel: when you're at that level, you get paid for the attempt.
Not sure how this is surprising to anyone paying attention to how Twitter is being run.
A chain of grifters and liars repeatedly mining the same group of people for all they're worth, never delivering anything positive, only making them more angry and resentful at every step of the way.
Thousand losers is a cool million for nothing. Elon wouldn't miss on that opportunity now. He needs a thousand millions just for the interest rate.