> I see a lot of theories that this is being done to prop up stock prices by hiding debt and making the balance sheet look better, but large investors understand these financial engineering operations and factor it into their decisions to buy and sell stock.

Frankly I don’t think so. I don’t think investors factor this in. I have, anecdotally, seen simple financial engineering prop up stock prices. From what I’ve seen, the big investors look just at the numbers. They don’t even really consider strategy very much. Just making your numbers look better is enough to, at least temporarily, greatly inflate your stock.