Won't be like Concorde, where IIRC you had to have military fast-jet experience to even bid the thing. It will be highly automated with all the modern trimmings and guard rails.

I tend to agree that the upfront cost and overhead is probably more suited to airlines.

But I could also see the airlines being concerned that if they ignore it, and one of the fracs manages to put a hundred or a few hundred in service that it could seriously bleed off the airlines' top tier premium pax. They may have viewed a few million $ (if that) for options on a plane that doesn't have great odds of ever being delivered as cheap insurance.