Because 99% of the people saying that the "whales are manipulating the markets" has no basis at all and are just saying that so they have someone to blame for their bad trades.
Also, do we even have proof of a hedge fund shorting bitcoin with huge amounts of money?
I agree that it's wrong to blame losses on market manipulation ... However it is provable on not just the Bitcoin blockchain, but on others as well, that there is a concentration of wealth to fewer in comparison to a large distributed payment network. On-chain statistics used to show 10000+ BTC wallets quite blatantly in 21-22, though since then these wallets have obfuscated their ppwer by breaking holdings up into other addresses.
While it's unwise to blame whales for losses, it's not unreasonable to accept the reality of wealth concentration, as it is definitely existent to a certain extent.
