Sure, if you want to be pedantic, it's impossible to know anyone's true motives for anything. Actually we're talking about a group of people, so each person in the group will have their own set of (potentially wildly divergent) motives. Well played, sir.
What I can (and in fact did) say with a high level of certainty is that they aren't choosing their tactics based on effectiveness. They're choosing their tactics based on maximising attention on themselves. This is consistent with
narcissism.
Of course we don't have to read minds in order to judge someone's actions. If someone says they want <A>, and they continuously persist in doing a thing which has no plausible pathway of ever achieving <A>, but is reliably and consistently achieving <B>, it's reasonable to infer that what they actually care about is <B>.
What I can (and in fact did) say with a high level of certainty is that they aren't choosing their tactics based on effectiveness. They're choosing their tactics based on maximising attention on themselves. This is consistent with narcissism.
Of course we don't have to read minds in order to judge someone's actions. If someone says they want <A>, and they continuously persist in doing a thing which has no plausible pathway of ever achieving <A>, but is reliably and consistently achieving <B>, it's reasonable to infer that what they actually care about is <B>.