It’s pretty obvious that the reason the person backed out had nothing to do with being scared to go or being busy or trying to show up Bezos.

They probably didn’t want all of this extra publicity, especially if they are a multi millionaire living an quiet life outside of the public eye. Why would you ever want to risk that and invite all of this extra publicity into your life. Once you draw the attention of the masses, everything you have ever done or you will ever do will be scrutinized. They can always go up in space later, but they probably didn’t want to be part of this dog and pony show…