I disagree with the second half of your analysis - that STX was...

I disagree with the second half of your analysis - that STX was manipulated upwards to 50 cents, and I'll show you why on two historical charts. On the daily price bar chart, going back three years, it is pretty easy to see that there were many occasions during Strike's climb upwards when there were lengthy periods of retracement, i.e. downward price movement. It was perfectly possible for long position holders who'd been holding for months to close out for a loss during those long retracements. I did it (partially) a couple of times myself. The price action is typical of normal market 'fear and greed' behaviour, particularly for explorers as new information arrives, positive and negative, and is processed by Market participants. I see no evidence of sustained upward price manipulation.
Then of course there was the double disappointment of SE3 and SE2. It seemed to me that the Market strongly over-reacted to this unexpected news. For a while afterward, say a month or two, Market participants seemed to collectively agree that the 'haircut' for the bad news was excessive and the price started to slowly recover.

Since the beginning of April though, but excluding a brief period at EOFY when control was briefly lost, arguably by shorts closing irrationally for window dressing purposes, its been pretty much a relentless downward path. Longs are now paying twice for SE3 and 2, IMO, if that is still the covering explanation for price weakness. Other news has been mostly positive since July, except for Booth. But here we are, still relentlessly grinding down. We've disconnected from reality, in the medium term.
Why? See the second chart. Before September 2023 there was no significant shorting activity and probably no coordinated bot trading either.
BTW - a 'flush of arxxholes' is my contribution.