Author here, There are many overlapping possibilities that aren't necessarily incompatible. For example, over here, the Girard's conceptualization of the scape

Author here, There are many overlapping possibilities that aren't necessarily incompatible. For example, over here, the Girard's conceptualization of the scapegoat isn't incompatible with your perspective. It's important for the community involved in the process to genuinely believe that the scapegoat is guilty. And, if you look at the timeline, this trial (and others that we may not know about) helped to restore Athens to relative stability. As I've argued, there's good indication that some of his ideas may have indeed influenced his students to commit treasonous acts. The list of his former students who went on to either overthrow the Athenian government or defect to Sparta is quite long. It's possible that there's something there. But there is a general consensus that he, generally, didn't advocate for it. In Plato's and Xenephon's dialogues he explicitly advocated harmony with the laws of the polis. And Plato posits that one of the reasons why he chose to stay was because of this belief. That being said, I also think that the Athenians wanted to get rid of him, they didn't want to actually kill him. Usually, in ancient Athens, punishments were carried out in a day or two of their delivery. But due to a festival and other reasons, his punishment wasn't carried out for more than a month and he had plenty of means and opportunity to escape. Socrates was the one who refused to leave. He, for the lack of a better phrase, committed suicide by jury.