Who knows what prompted him to make the bid. The judges forced him to follow through on it when he was trying to get out of it.

do you understand how bids work?

"Bid" was hypothesis's word, not mine, so whatever "gotcha" you think you're springing on me, send it elsewhere.

Yes, I know how bids work, at least approximately. It wasn't a bid in the strict sense. It was an offer to buy, which Twitter accepted, and then Musk tried to withdraw the offer (because of too much of the traffic being bots, IIRC). The judge did not allow Musk to withdraw, because there was no such "subject to" in his offer.