he’s so intellectuslly and morally crippled that he can’t even envision acting in any way other than he does.

Correct. Fully buy into this.

Vance, just like his boss, doesn’t do it consciously and deliberately

Bullshit. Jimmy Don learned it from Peter Thiel just as Chump learned if from Roy Cohn. It is most definitely both conscious and deliberate. 🤷‍♂️

he immediately assumes that Padilla’s actions were political theater because the idea of making a stand driven by sincerity and integrity is so completely alien to him that it doesn’t even cross his mind as a possibility. He immediately assumes it was theater because if it was him, that’s exactly and all it could or would be.

No. Not “assumes”. Blatantly, purposefully, and intentionally characterizes those actions as theatre simply for the express reason of belittling those actions.