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They sell off everything of value before it implodes and cash out. THEN they let it implode with nothing but the debt remaining.

Why would banks lend to such an enterprise if they don't expect to get paid back?

They don't. They lend to the target company BEFORE the buyout.

So over time banks will learn to avoid lending to buyout targets?

banks generally lend using a set of relatively hard coded critera. it would take systemic change for them to ‘learn’.