There's a sense in which leaders don't actually make decisions, just tell people what's already happening.
From one perspective Elon is doing what Zuck doesn't have the balls to pull off. The product is mature, has passed peak enthusiasm already, time to stop growing+exploring, and start battening down the hatches?
The major threat to Twitter right now is twofold: that (1) the mild user downturn it’s been experiencing since 2020 turns into a full-on death spiral, and (2) other social networks step in and pull a TikTok by gobbling up Twitter’s users. Both of these things could probably be averted by smart new leadership. Neither of these things is helped by loading the company up with debt and moving into layoff/cash extraction mode to service it.
From one perspective Elon is doing what Zuck doesn't have the balls to pull off. The product is mature, has passed peak enthusiasm already, time to stop growing+exploring, and start battening down the hatches?