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I think you got a few things wrong here.

Primarily...

...that was exposed and wrecked in less than a decade

My understanding is that he was having these types of relationships with US elite since the 1990's.

So no, I don't believe that Epstein was planning on blackmailing anyone (inevitably ruining his own life in the process)

The first time he got busted, he got a sweetheart deal because he "belonged to intelligence". He had no reason to believe that what he was doing was going to lead to any serious repercussions.

I'm also curious how you think it would play out if Bill Gates or Bill Clinton decided to go against the wishes of Epstein's masters and videos of them having sex with an underage girl were leaked to the public? Do you think a viable defense would be, "Yeah, but this random financier who helped me, did way worse stuff..." ? I don't think that's how that would have gone down.

Also, who's to say they didn't use professionals? I would assume they did. Likely some of the perverts preferred pros and other perverts preferred "ordinary, unvetted underage girls" and those are the ones the we have all heard about. Epstein's close friend Jean Luc Bruenel (who's agency was financed by Epstein and who went into hiding after Epstein's arrest and ultimately killed himself) is proven to have fed his models into the sex trade. These girls probably were paid enough that they haven't gone to the press yet.

Lastly, I'm not sure where you were getting that he was "wildly successful". As far as I know he had one client who happened to be a billionaire, signed his house over to him, gave him Power of Attorney and who also happened to be in the MEGA group which was one of the most powerful Israeli lobbying organizations.

I don't think "but why were they so sloppy and obvious about it" is a good defense. It only appears that way in retrospect. Hindsight is always 20/20.

My understanding is that he was having these types of relationships with US elite since the 1990's.

He bought the island in 1998, was investigated by the Palm Beach police in 2005, and it was at that point that most of the powerful people who had previously associated with him stopped. He was then indicted by the FBI in 2007. He also was sued by over 100 "Jane Does" in 2008. So whatever "cover" he would have had would have been blown by that point, and he was on everyone's radar screen.

The first time he got busted, he got a sweetheart deal because he "belonged to intelligence". He had no reason to believe that what he was doing was going to lead to any serious repercussions.

You state as fact something that only Acosta has ever said. And on top of that, the "sweetheart" deal including losing most of his contacts, spending more than a year in prison, and also paying out more than $50M in payments to women he had abused.

And obviously, even Acosta's sweetheart deal was transient at best because the investigations/prosecutions never really stopped. Check out his wikipedia page and see more than 20 lawsuits prosecutions against him from 2008 on. He was immune from "serious repercussions".

I'm also curious how you think it would play out if Bill Gates or Bill Clinton decided to go against the wishes of Epstein's masters and videos of them having sex with an underage girl were leaked to the public? Do you think a viable defense would be, "Yeah, but this random financier who helped me, did way worse stuff..." ? I don't think that's how that would have gone down.

So you think that this information would have somehow leaked about one guy, but nobody would have asked "where did this happen", how did you meet these girls, etc."??? Of course, that all comes out. That would have had to have been part of the prosecution case. If any one of his "guests" was busted, Epstein was busted. It was unavoidable as a part of any investigation.

Also, who's to say they didn't use professionals? I would assume they did.

Using some professionals wouldn't change the fact that he also used 100+ amateurs, many of whom talked to anyone who would listen. That was the stupid move, and that's how/why the whole thing - inevitably - collapsed. Some girls talked, which was as predictable as the sun rising.

I don't think "but why were they so sloppy and obvious about it" is a good defense. It only appears that way in retrospect. Hindsight is always 20/20.

It was obvious when he was first busted way back in 2005. Again, doing this with so many different young girls, taking no steps to ensure they didn't talk, etc., was just dumb. The fact that he had so many different lawsuits filed by so many different women validates the point.

Or to put it differently, if this was really a blackmail and/or intelligence operations, Epstein himself wouldn't have been the primary participant in abusing girls personally. He'd have just run/managed the island, then blackmailed guys with 'hey, what are you doing molesting the poor little girls I hire to work here?" He can then at least claim that his hands are clean, that he did nothing wrong, and it was just the fault of the guys who came to his island and acted like perverts.

That's a blackmail op.