When Ariane 6 was first discuss politically it was all about how it would beat SpaceX in the market, how competitive it would be and so on and so on. Endlessly talking about how Arianespace was so superior to SpaceX in terms of launch cadence and reliability and so on.

And now 10 years later its 'well we need to launch sats ourself, of course we can't compete with SpaceX on the open market'.

If their goal had actually been assured independent access to space, doing the Ariane 5 ME was a better plan. Because the reality is, the cost for Ariane 6 is far greater then the money saved by going from Ariane 5 ME to Ariane 6. It will take a decade or more of flying Ariane 6 before this actual saves money. And by then the better have their next rocket in planning.