I am wondering. This extradition bill crisis and the controversies before that (i.e. protests against Article 23, against national education, the Occupy 2014 movement and so on) all reflects something: Hong Kong people can't seem to rule HK. Now before you all jump up in outrage, wait until you finish reading my entire post, because I am not actually supporting that position.
During the handover in 97 and for some years after that, Beijing always like to recite the line "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong", that the CCP has trust in HK people handling their own affairs, typified by the Chinese idiom of "river water should not interfere with well water", that internal HK affairs should not be mixed with mainland affairs, and by extension mainland officials will not butt into HK governance.
But all that seem to change now. The phrase "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" is no longer mentioned in official statements, either from Beijing or the HK government. So what happened? We see mainland officials increasingly butting in, no longer hesitating to "mix river and well water". We saw the kidnap of the booksellers. The banning of candidates for Legco. And throughout all these events, we have one consistent pattern: subpar if not outright incompetent Chief Executives.
The CCP needs a CE it can trust and control, even at the expense of ability and wisdom, hence explaining the list of poor quality CEs. But by doing so, it is also seem to be saying: "See? Hong Kong people can't govern HK after all". This would therefore justified an even stronger hand from Beijing to intervene.
Of course, there are capable and willing people in HK who can become the CE. But they will never be allowed to become one. Not only does the CCP not trust anyone who is not seen as "'red" enough, they don't want anyone who can demonstrate that HK people can govern HK.
But won't that harm HK, and by extension, also harm the CCP's interest? Beijing's calculation may be to find someone who is a bumbling fool, but not so idiotic as to ruin HK, but just keep it running along as it is for the CCP to extract maximum benefit while it plans long-term replacement of HK with Shanghai or some other mainland city. With Lam, Beijing may have overplayed their hand in selecting an utterly moronic CE. But even that may play into their hands long-term. With Lam's extraordinary level of incompetence, it is sending a loud message that HK people have no ability to rule HK, therby providing justification for a future mainland governor of HK or direct rule from Beijing.