This is all true. The question, however, is: given that all these companies are already on the brink of bankruptcy, how is it legal (and acceptable) that a 3r

This is all true. The question, however, is: given that all these companies are already on the brink of bankruptcy, how is it legal (and acceptable) that a 3rd party comes in, extracts hundreds of millions from the already bankrupt company, and when the bankruptcy does arrive, it is bigger and worse than what would have happened without the PE involvement? Basically everyone except the PE gets screwed. I have not been following this closely, but if the 5-10 PE deals I’ve looked at over the years, it was clear from day 1 whether it was structured to have a chance at recovery, (some of which succeed, and some fail) or just to enrich the PE buyer. I wonder why this isn’t clear to the creditors - my guess would be that an early legitimate creditor only uses “other peoples money”, which legitimizes it for others.