So I think things like this, and like the one about harvesting knee fluid from patients to resell on the black market, are actually a feature of the conspiracy theories.
If you start buying into something pretty plausible, and then later you come to your senses, it’s not that painful to just let it go and admit you were wrong. If, on the other hand, you buy into something that’s clearly batshit insane, then you can’t admit you were wrong and that any toddler could have seen that it didn’t make sense. Because at that point it’s tantamount to admitting that you’re a helpless gullible moron whom no one should ever listen to again.
And presto, you’re in deep, and you can’t let go, or you pay a terrible cost.