As you recognize, Biden had a choice.

Sure. He could have stayed in the race, been disowned by his party, abandoned by his donors, see his son prosecuted by his own DOJ, and gone down in history as the guy who lost to The Bad Orange Man.

Or, he could drop out of the race, get a nice payday, be feted by the democrat media (read: all of them) for being one of history's Most Amazing Presidents Ever and likely get his family paid. And oh, yeah, that Hunter thing largely goes away.

That's some choice. Again, not unlike paying the ransom for your kidnapped child.

It was obvious to any observer that Joe Biden was mentally compromised in 2020 and 2021. Why do you think Biden ran from his basement in 2020?

Pelosi and others covered up his decline to try and win an election in 2020. Then they lied to the public about Joe's fitness for office for the following 3 years.

When it came time to run again, they'd so puffed up Joe Biden that his ego and Marie Antoinette Jill Biden convinced him that not only should he run again, but that he'd destroy The Bad Orange Man. After all,
Biden cured Covid!
Best economy ever, Jack!
Hey, NATO - America is back, baby!

...and a litany of other fantasies.

Pelosi, Obama and Schumer - the people who run the democrat party - realized the jig might be up - if Biden ran a traditional campaign, his obvious unfitness would sink him. How could they resurrect the basement strategy that worked so well last time?

So the party tried a bluff: Offer the Bad Orange Man some ridiculous terms for the debates - no audience, a mute button, screamingly partisan left wing debate moderators on networks that Trump hates...with the idea that Trump would turn them down. Then they could hide Joe in the basement again and just let Trump say dumb things that alienated just enough voters for Biden to win a second term.

But they forgot 1 thing: The Bad Orange Man relishes adversarial environments. So he accepted their rigged and ridiculous debate rules.

Biden rants today about how he was "set up to fail". He wasn't set up to fail this time. The set up to fail part happened in 2019 when he decided to run for President then. The mythmaking about his mental fitness just couldn't stand up to the reality of his condition any longer.

And thus the people who run the democrat party - not the voters - pulled the plug.