The genius of this ploy is that a hypothetical candidate is •always• better than a real one. One person gets to picture Bernie, the next person gets to picture…I don’t know, Bloomberg or whatever, and they can both think they agree.
It’s so seductive. It even has a grain of truth: yeah, lots about Biden •does• suck; yeah, Iraq really •did• have chemical weapons at one point. That’s why it’s crucial to recognize all this as an aluminum-tubes-style ploy with an agenda, per the OP.