Well yes @Chersfrozenface. The Tories definitely did manage to ensure all the shit landed on the Lib Dems.
The example does also indicate that the Lib Dems just weren’t as good at negotiating to be in coalition than the greens appear to have been (possibly because the SNP lacked the leadership to say no). The Lib Dems quickly folded on things that had motivated a significant chunk of the population (23% of the popular vote, even though it only translated into 57 seats because of FPTP) to vote for them. So people were pretty angry with them from the beginning and it was impossible to turn that ship around.
The Scottish greens have never been that popular. They should be miles away from being a significant force in shaping Scottish policy. In 2021 they got just over 1% of the overall Constituency vote and less than 9% of the regional vote. The conservatives and labour are both far more popular in Scotland than the greens are. Yet they manage to hold a ludicrous amount of power over the SNP. And they’ve been pretty ruthless in leveraging it (despite their ‘be kind’ packaging).
From the public’s perspective, it made some sense that Tories would go into coalition with the Lib Dems, as the clear third party in parliament. In contrast, coalition with a far left fringe party with no significant popular support looks a lot more like the SNP trying desperately to hang on to a majority (having alienated everyone else in Scottish politics). That makes it harder to blame the greens. Because it looks like the SNP a brought their untrained dog to a party and then let it bite the host and shit in the middle of the living room floor.
Which is to say, that it all reflects very poorly on the SNP leadership indeed. Humza is unlikely to prove a stronger leader than Nicola did.