It's certainly price manipulation, but not likely to be intended price manipulation. Your arguments are flawed but you have reached the right conclusion.

This is one of the many flaws of badly regulated markets.

(There are no free markets, and there is never perfect information, and people often behave remarkably irrationally for many reasons.)

Reading through the Epstein file, it's naive to conclude that no collusion is happening.

Remember when FAANG was caught red handed manipulated hiring to depress salaries?

Just seems like a lot of astroturf-ish behavior ignoring real world happenings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...