Musk was a hair's breadth away from taking the SEC "420 funding secured" case to court, and spending who knows how much political goodwill, attention and effort towards that for months or years, instead of building the world's most interesting car company. During the most critical months of Tesla's history. He was convinced he was right and unwilling to let the thing disappear in a settlement. That was in 2018, four years ago. IIRC, only a conversation with Mark Cuban concerning the distraction of a lawsuit convinced him otherwise.
Oh, and this was immediately after the Thailand cave diver pedo fiasco, and immediately before the Joe Rogan marijuana controversy.
Two years before this, in 2016, Tesla bought the unprofitable SolarCity at a price that's truly ridiculous considering Tesla's share price today. I hardly think they've made more than a token profit in the eight years since. The thing seemed like a spur-of-the-moment decision.
I don't think we're seeing a difference of magnitude in Musk's impulsive big decisions. Pretty sure they're strongly correlated with the personality traits that's given us the successes of SpaceX and Tesla already. I think everyone should just lean back, relax and enjoy the drama if that's what they're into. Or read a good book otherwise, and check back on the progress of Musk's companies in five years.
Also need to point out that the Twitter purchase hasn't closed yet. Musk pulling out of that at the last moment would not be very unexpected.