You underestimate Elon Musk. Many people have done that before and lost that bet. If anything, he repeatedly succeeded in building world class software and hardware teams for Tesla, SpaceX, and a few other companies. The notion that he won't be able to attract world class talent is ludicrous. Yes, he is a bit of a liability and his management style is obnoxious and unconventional. But he does get things right once in a while.

And he hates bloated inefficient teams. His decrees on meetings are infamous. Tripling the team at Twitter implies a lot of internal politics, fiefdoms, communication overhead, and generally a lot of headless chickens running around. There's no nice way to fix such a team. A sledge hammer is one way to fix it and obviously he likes getting results quickly.

So, the notion of laying off most of that team was a foregone conclusion. The notion that a lot of the better people would get upset about that and leave as well is also highly predictable. What's left is a team with some gaps but also a lot of breathing room. And he can always lure key people back in by throwing money at them.

Simple plan. It might actually work. At the cost of a bit of drama, temporary instability, and lots of free publicity. Exactly his style. Cringe worthy and effective. I can see the logic here.