You’re being refuctive in your framing of his early work. At the same time as Wittgenstein was playing with words, the logical positivists were attempting to go

You’re being refuctive in your framing of his early work. At the same time as Wittgenstein was playing with words, the logical positivists were attempting to go the opposite route, and find language that both expressed meaningful things about the world and was also rigorously well formed; the meaning is a mathematical logical implication formed from empirical observations. Naturally, they failed. Wittgenstein represents the other end of the spectrum: not only will words not save us from meaninglessness and irrationality, words can lead us straight towards them in the guise of reason. As always, the celebrated hero is standing on giants, and they symbolize the progress rather than singlehanded executing a large leap themselves. You could apply a similar disdain to most scientists and philosophers we learn about.