I don't like how this whole thing has played out, but to be fair, I think fear of missing out over something that would, if successful, be an existential threat to Uber is probably a rational response.

I don't completely disagree. They definitely have to be weighing the likelihood of that outcome, and Musk's statements probably made it seem more likely. That said, there are a lot of existential threats to companies that they should probably not be spending investor money on, such as asteroid defense.