I think this is probably not very tin-foil, but I do believe the rumors we were hearing about Cook retiring and Ternus stepping in were less leaks and more intentionally preparing markets for the inevitable transition.
I don't think that's a crazy idea. The media plays a huge part in companies of this size and they definitely have people who think about these sorts of things. Not sure how necessary it'd be though, like they could probably get the same result by just doing what they were gonna do anyway.