I think you are right.
SBF believed he could get investors to invest billions of dollars into his company, and that he only needed more time.
As hard as it maybe for us to believe now, he was such a venerated figure back then, that no one doubted he could raise the money, except his lawyers.
In intervews with various interviewers he states they (his lawyers) insisted he sign documents resigning from the company and turning over control to a legal firm.
He says they were NOT to use those documents, unless he told them to, because he thought he could raise the money.
He was famous enough and the world enmoured enough with him, that I think he could have pulled it off.
But his lawyers double crossed him to turn this into a lawyers feast of fees.
They have collected a record amount of fees billing by the hour for their services.
He asserts that he was surprised by the news announcements he had resigned.
He asserts that he was surprised that he was locked out of his own companies computers.
It was a huge clusterf--k