There’s a reality here where someone saw this as a no-lose situation. Either:
A. We get some improvement, but it doesn’t reach their claims so we don’t go forward.
Or
B. We get the promised improvement and it’s actually worth it.
They missed a few obvious issues in that the cars may become safe or get worse longevity from the experiment. That and the contract process took time and money if they had a reasonable expectation of failure.
Still, it’s not entirely stupid and so long as Mullen got NOTHING besides a scam record, this could be a win.