Buying on-market however does not give the company the $83k...

Buying on-market however does not give the company the $83k working capital to spend. Their $$$ are now going to work.
(however probably just to pay their own wages while they all go on holidays as Akili FDA approvals progresses without the need of their management input)

The problem was solely the 40% discount and therefore additional shareholder dilution.

If they bought on-market the company would have $83k less for outgoings.
But it also would have 7.5million less shares of dilution.

But its the capital that is needed and they are over a barrel for it to survive for Akili.
Its not good but at least the company benefits from some needed short term cash from them.

I would guess during negotiations since the instos did not want to pay around 2c per share but only 1.1c the directors therefore had to soften that blow by participating themselves. Instos forced their hands by the low ball offering.

If they did not give $83k of their own funds for the company to put to use and only announced a 40% discount for instos....you could imagine the scenes on here.