I think we can agree that Trump holding onto presidency was the #1 priority here, much like Lincoln before the Civil War. He cannot let America fall to traitors.

If Biden conceding isn't an option, any other route except letting them cheat and then arresting them wouldn't have been a guaranteed victory. Every other route must be legitimized by the courts that just failed Trump. If Pence had thrown the electors back to the states and they voted Trump, it still would have gone through the Supreme Court after.

Let's say for example Trump focused on making it the most secure election in history. He puts armed guards, lawyers and cameras in all the major counting spots. He gets Dominion disqualified and goes to paper ballots. He manages to get voter ID passed etc. Maybe even puts crypto security. If this is even possible to get all that done against Democrat resistance. Now let's say the results are real and he wins the election in a landslide, 10 points in the popular vote, high 300s EVs. Biden does not concede as Hillary told him to. The MSM polls predicting a Biden landslide are near 20 points off, therefore it's so far off the left says it's impossible and Trump stole the election and the media goes all in on the narrative. The Democrats explore every option they have to overturn the election. They go to the Supreme Court. They complain about the post office and that votes weren't counted late enough. They push Russia hoax. They try to get the Republican swamp to reject Trump and vote against him in contingent election on Jan 6th. They threaten secession and use the rioting to intimidate people into following their way. They send alternate electors. It doesn't matter if the evidence is overwhelming that Trump won in a landslide, we just saw overwhelming evidence of fraud and it didn't matter. The evidence didn't matter at all. The only thing that mattered was the blackmailed people, bullying, etc.

This plan would contain risk for Trump. It means he has to rely on the Supreme Court, the Republican swamp, and Pence doing the right thing, since by hyper securing the election it means the Democrats results are real. If the courts rule they won, there's nothing he can do.

Sun Tzu says the battefield is essential and the courts and legislatures were a very friendly battlefield for the Democrats. It's where they can use their biggest advantage which is utterly loyalty to the cause by its members and working as a collective, compared to individually driven and cowardly GOP. You could argue the real 4D chess move by the Democrats may have been to actually NOT cheat, lose on election night, and then try to bully their way to victory in the courts if it's all compromised.

There was only two ways to make the courts a non factor, one was to somehow get a Biden concession, the other is to let the court path conclude and then let the feds or military taking care of this which Trump is now set up perfectly to do.