I reckon you prefer that narrative, perhaps for nothing else than it being more interesting than the more likely. When he turned us down, was there much suggestion at all that he wanted to leave Barcelona, just not to go to United, or was it more a case of him wanting to stay at Barcelona, which was his dream club? That’s even before we get into the well documented contract situation.
And while I agree in principle with your second paragraph, it’s a sweeping statement made way too often and fans are likely not as informed as they would like to think of a player’s motivations. It‘s toxic and sets fans off on the wrong foot with players based on nothing but their/our own insecurities. I recall the same said when Cavani joined. Then it quickly changed to ‘I must admit, I thought he was just coming here for a pay day but I’ve been impressed with his application’. Perhaps there was no basis at all for the assumption in the first place. The same was said of Casemiro. This causes established players to continually start from a place of distrust with our fans, and then subsequent poor performances get diagnosed as disconnection and it’s unhealthy and of our own doing.
We’re not a club in Saudi, nor are we even Newcastle. I’ve been saying for years but for a club of our size, our fans would do well to drop this total disbelief that any player other than guys stepping up from Crystal Palace or our traditional Scandinavian players would genuinely want to play for United.
There’s no reason why, should De Jong decide that the time has come for him to leave Barcelona, that he would not see Manchester United as a viable option, rather than all the other supposedly ‘real big clubs’ (usually clubs who were born in 2014 or something) who for some reason are presumed to not offer huge salaries in their own rights and just have lifelong PSG, City or Chelsea fans who dream to represent them.