I think I agree with you, but this is phrased a bit weird across your comments. Normally there are chosen “detractors”, a-la Manchin/Sinema. It’s their job to kill this stuff and constantly be the scapegoat, and they get special deals as a reward.
However, if the chosen ones can’t or won’t fulfill this role, there are always corpo establishment dems ready to step in and kill meaningful legislation (ie, your blue dog Dems comment above.) They don’t openly advocate for doing this though, and do prefer to hide behind the scapegoats instead.
This would be the typical Dem strategy - extremely targeted so as not to accidentally open the floodgates for additional impactful legislation to get passed. Just barely enough to campaign on for the next election cycle.
But hey, I’ll take a smidgeon of hope for something more.