Are “it was a stupid decision to buy him” and “I don't get why people listen to him” supposed to be related statements? The business decision isn’t about your personal feelings, it’s about his objectively measurably enormous audience
But looking back at those days where all platform embraced a strategy to "own ALL content", I doubt that the 2nd-best offer was significantly less.
After all, they also paid him to NOT make any further money with the podcast on YouTube or other platforms...
I don’t understand how that could have ever been a strategy without buying the businesses that own most of the popular music, such as Warner, Universal, and Sony.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPOT/holders/
Any ownership by the record labels must be less than 1%.