OK, they're all subsets of sucking. I guess the next question is, so what?
If you don't think intentionally losing is a big difference from unintentionally losing, so be it. I disagree, obviously.
But the Angels have just been making bad decisions for a number of years now. There are always going to be losers in this zero sum game. And the Red Sox have been in that class themselves far too much over the last dozen years...
The only season I can think of that the Red Sox have ever tanked was 2020. And it seemed like the perfect time to do it, with a 60-game season and Sale and E-Rod and Cora out and rest of the post-2019 shitstorm... But I'll always have kind of a queasy feeling about that season and getting Mayer with the #4 pick. We've had other losing seasons of late, but this was the only one that felt like they were fine about it.
"This is just a subset of that" would be downright offensive in many instances. "Being tortured and murdered is just a subset of dying." "Terminal cancer is just a subset of being sick." Nobody says these things.
Well, for starters I don't think much of the list of reasons. You somehow left out boxers throwing fights because they're paid or otherwise coerced to do so.
And how is being overmatched throwing a fight?
You really seem to hate the idea that there's a big difference between trying to compete but sucking, and trying to suck.
Is throwing a fight in boxing different from trying to win but getting beat?
Is throwing a fight a "subset of losing"?
No, it isn't exactly what you said. Your whole point seems to be there isn't much difference between trying and sucking, and tanking. You've even suggested fans don't care either way.