Lol, our views are reversed on that, I'm not ruling out an FBI honeypot but if I had to put money on it I'd wager on it being a 4chan op for the lulz. My brothers and I did that kind of thing for fun when we were teenagers and although I haven't frequented 4chan in a long time it still seems a lot more their MO than the FBI's. I'm quite familiar with the FBI's history, that's part of the reason I don't really think they're behind it. As you pointed out, FBI plots tend to be rather directed with an eye towards a press conference and a conviction, while QAnon is much more vague, nebulous, undirected. Honestly, if there's any sort of government entity behind it I suspect it's the FSB, it resembles old KGB 'active measures' a lot more than anything the FBI has done.
While we're on the topic of shady police antics, are you familiar with the Stasi's zersetzung?