The click of death problem when these first came out did them in. They got off to a hobble with so much bad press about it nobody wanted to rely on them. Also, they were not cheap.

I would agree with you that Germany was always just using the pact as a means of buying time. Either way, it’s a fuck up of the highest order.

It’s not the exact same situation, but Germany attacking the Soviet Union in 1941 when they already had the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in place is a pretty colossal blunder. We don’t know what might have happened if Hitler hadn’t done that, but it was the biggest oof I’ve heard of.