He's playing the game brilliantly. He's worked everyone into a shoot with this "hottest free agent" gimmick, to the point he can drop lines like "that's OK, the guy in the back doesn't want to talk about it (his contract) either" in a promo that was obviously okayed and people are thinking it's proof that he is jumping to WWE as soon as he's able.
Hell, there's a faction in AEW right now getting over as heels because they embrace SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT as their personal saviors, and folks still don't see what MJF is doing.