He didn’t want to buy the company. So, he’s turning it into a pet project.

That's a good point, and one that had not occurred to me. For all we know, he's already mentally written off the $44 billion as a loss and is just having fun with it, with no expectation of success.

That would explain a lot.

I agree in general, but search feels like an odd example. That space has been dominated by ad companies since even before the internet (e.g., Yellow Pages).

Came for the decentralization, stayed for the nonconsensual lemon party redirects.