You're ignoring the fact that timing has a lot to do with a short position. There was a long period where shorting Enron would've ruined you, and a short period when it'd make you rich.
Shorting is the best mechanism for exposing scams and frauds in public markets, in fact that’s really the only reason it exists.
It’s an incentive for people to root out corruption and graft. If you truly believe that SpaceX is a big scam and it’s not actually worth enough to be in the S&P 500, then taking a short position not only will net you a bundle of cash, it will do the public a service by helping to expose a fraud and prevent future companies from doing the same thing.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't do shit to avoid fraud. The government should enforce fraudulent behavior.
But no, we're in the grift economy where I'm suppose to hedge my bets about how big a fraud is and when someone will wake up naked in a pit of aligators.