This is almost a perfect late capitalism parable.

Step 1) Bad management and a rigid model cause big company to lose a lot of money.

Step 2) Stock price declines.

Step 3) People create a bubble around the stock out of a belief that a savior is coming to the company and for the lulz.

Step 4) CEO who helped hollow out the company walks away with more money than was paid out for all trade ins in the history of Gamestop.

Out of enthusiasm for this guy leaving, and to try to stick it to the big bad hedge funds, they ended up rewarding one of the people who destroyed the company with a huge payday.

House always wins, one way or another.

Wow, they really democratized blah blah fucking blah.

it's almost as if there's an inordinate amount of wealth funneling towards a privileged class who use said wealth to create financial vehicles that have no basis in real value.

who could have seen this coming?

The whole system is a joke. It seems there are absolutely no correlation between good leadership and these bonuses. Boeing is another great example of this, after all those planes crashing and people dying the CEO exited with a huge bonus.