Now you are just trying to ram everything into your poor "middle manager" analogy. A middle manager (you use it disparagingly, despite there being lots of really good middle managers, so you must mean someone with no real authority who makes the safe moves, and keeps things moving without creativity) would ALWAYS take the safe and controlled move. Such a person would take the safe move and try not to draw attention to himself. He would keep things moving one step in front of the other with no deviation from a plan that was set by someone else, and would try as best as he could to be safely "in the pack" and not an outlier.
This isn't a safe move that allows him to put one foot in front of the other and keep the status quo. It is the opposite. It is a move that creates an immediate roster hole that demands that he make a big and bold move to follow it, or fail completely. By not keeping DDV, he has created a situation where he must be creative about the roster. A "middle manager," as you use the term, would never want to expose himself to that type of risk and variability. The middle manager would have made the move that everyone else would have made (extend the offer) and stay safely in the pack, trying not to draw too much attention.
You can certainly think this was a bad or dumb move (I do), but stop with the tired middle manager tripe. You have said it so often, and in response to literally every move, that it has lost all meaning on this board.