I perfectly refuted your characterisation of the pilot as "an idiot", and postulated on a feasible explanation, to boot.
Clueless, indeed.
35 years as ATC, 13 of them in Chicago, gave me a clue or two.
In case you didn't glean this o' dear ol' government employee, being an ATC has nothing to do with flying an air plane. I fondly remember being cleared to land at the end of an ifr flight into Worcester on runway 11 when the vfr traffic was using 31. We're the ones whose lives are on the line. My instrument instructor was ATC at NY Center, and he took me to watch, so I'm sort of immune to the standard BS where they show a radar scope on the news with every plane in the air between Boston and Washington, DC on it. At NY Ctr, at least, no more than a third of the people there are working at any time. (and half of those are gofers.) The rest are playing chess or bridge, watching TV, etc.
ML/NJ