I am well aware of the dirty tricks - well some of them anyway -...

I am well aware of the dirty tricks - well some of them anyway - that the BEOT employ to scalp pips from each other and from retail.
I don’t buy this idea that shorters “have more info” or, as some others have said “are smarter” than longs.
There is every chance, imo that many of those shorters also have long positions, and many “separate” hands, and use these (both) to manipulate the share price to benefit their short-term pip chasing.
Sure, it is not intuitive that someone would bet against this co with the various catalysts possibly arriving any day, but I think people need to look a bit broader to see that there are various ways they can limit their exposure to such a sudden change in sp.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to automatically assume that they must have insider knowledge, or be “smarter” than others, because they are betting “against” the company.

Also, in the scheme of things, the total short volume is not that large really, there’s probably half a dozen of us here that (combined) own that much stock.

Don’t give them too much credit!
Looking through the trade detail in some of the substantial holder notices on various stocks shows that “the pros” are often spinning their wheels with poor trades and questionable judgement!

As I often say: if they were that good, they wouldn’t be working for some investment bank (etc), they’d be making their own millions with their own money!

imo
Dyor !