Well, I'm thinking most of The Smart Money went short early,...

Well, I'm thinking most of The Smart Money went short early, maybe even months ago, at prices in the low .20s.
The Modus Operandi seems to be :
1. Identify a likely prey a few months in advance.
2. Borrow while the price is high from dumb Super Funds and even the Index Fund purveyors themselves.
3. Once set with a healthy short position, then and only then bring in the price destroying mechanisms.
4. Buy blocks from the Index Funds on the prey's exit from the Index.
5. Return said stock to the lender.
Steps, except Step 3, are reprehensible but totally legal. Step 3 is market manipulation, IMO.
So if The Smart Money took their short positions for the dance at around 22.5 and buy back from Morgan Stanley and others tomorrow at say, 19.5, they would have made around 13% nominally on the trade. Except they do not pay full freight for their shorts, they rent them for a fee plus interest. So their actual return based on their dollar value exposure is far higher.
If all had gone according to their plan, the bots would have kept the STX share price pinned down around 16.5, thus doubling their profits. The reported sniff of hydrocarbons from ED1 has partially skewered their ambitions.