Is it possible the short squeeze happens in years? If covid hits again and they put us all on lock downs, paper hands and newer long institutional investors panic, stock goes down, newer shorts cover, and it cascades the other way. AMC can't raise as much capital and bleeding money. Stock goes more and more down, more covering and it buys more time for earlier shorts. Company could go bankrupt before the squeeze happens. Becomes a zombie corp and years later when they the SHFs need it they cover and realize their gains a la SEARS and Blockbuster.
Then again, if the market crashes, depending on what triggers the crash (covid, housing, tuition, tech bubble 2.0, meme stock themselves, etc) it might have a domino effect that forces SHFs to cover right away and trigger moass. Also, is it safe to assume that the powers that be themselves may have strong interest in preventing all this by any means necessary as it could cause a crash of the economy.
I am not for or against the play at this point, not trying to convince anyone, just trying to learn. I would be happy if someone refutes my scenario as it would help me learn more and develop my critical thinking.
Tldr; with my limited knowledge and quick research on this whole thing, it is my opinion that the moass is not the sure shot everyone thought it was and could happen years later. Imo, this thing could really go either way depending on if their is a crash, what causes the crash, short term fundamentals and overall timing. It could be a coin toss...