Making a mountain out of a molehill as always. This is a nothingburger opinion piece in a couple of places.
But the press
needs a more interesting story than just "Biden v Trump round 2".
So West is going to get a LOT of press coverage.
The angle of "will his third party run cost the Democrats" is the most exciting narrative to take.
No one thinks he has any chance of winning. He will be hard pressed to match Stein's 1% of the vote in 2016.
But if they can prop him up for a while, they get lots of good stories about an insurgent run, and stories from Democratic strategists pointing out how a run like this can give the election to Trump.
Could West magically catch fire and suddenly pull in serious numbers?
Theoretically, but it is incredibly unlikely. (And the moment he isn't someone no one needs to care about winning, people will actually do stories about his policies and funding and whatever and who knows what real scrutiny will reveal.)
Think of it like DeSantis. The media propped him up as a real Trump contender for ages and then he got on the trail and the press then switched to a more critical eye as well. DeSantis is a terrible campaigner and matches up badly in the primary and so has seen support crater.
A similar pattern will happen with West if he ever starts getting momentum other than the media. (The media is going to stick with him for a while though because he is good on TV and gives them lots of stories to write in reaction. )