how is it a rug pull? if it's an inside job, doesn't that just make it theft?

That's always a possibility, and I'm sure it has happened a lot. I would suspect with the size of liquid it's more likely it was an exploit, but either way I don't think we'll ever know!

Yeah it was.

I mean of course it was. Everything in this whole ludicrous space is a scam of one kind or another. It's amazing to me that this is still even a point of discussion. It's obviously a rug pull.