Squandered means there was a better, evident option at the time. I have not yet been able to find a satisfactory answer to the question of what the companies should have done rather than buybacks, especially to mitigate the effects of a literal shutdown of basically entire lines of business resulting in no income.

The businesses in years past made money, invested some of it, spent some on R&D, and distributed some to shareholders (via buybacks). What other option was there?