With Twitter/X he definitely did act like a PE firm with deep cuts and a simplified operating model (eg. no moderation.)

Although strangely he destroyed the revenue model at the same time, which is something a PE firm would be careful to avoid.

I see twitter as sort of frustration thing, like hyperloop.

With hyperloop - he was frustrated by the way high speed rail was being handled in california, and hyperloop came into being as his cost + engineering sort of optimization. But with hyperloop he wasn't forced to buy it.

With twitter he just got in too deep and had to buy it.

(though I probably don't know enough about the details of twitter and could be wrong)