Lakers are one of the few franchises that don't have to care about optics because they'll be the most desired destination no matter what.
Lebron is still a good player, but nowhere near worth the supermax.
If he wants to compete anywhere, not just with the Lakers, he has to take a significant paycut that would be more in line with the value he's providing on the floor.
But that's beneath him and he'll most likely retire at the end of the season.
Luka kind of got fucked over with that trade. He finally had a functional supporting cast in Dallas and now he's wasting another year with a bad roster around him and a rebuild next summer.
Lakers will have cap space, but none of their supporting cast is valuable and they can only trade away pick swaps before 2031 because they already traded away 2027 and 2029 FRPs.
Then it's about free agency with noone valuable being available next summer.