>Using the software in a way that reveals its use seems ham-handed, perhaps its not a sophisticated actor using it in this instance.

Or the message they want to pass is "we're tracking you", and that's more powerful than anything to get from actual tracking.

Yeah, and the alleged hooks sounds obvious. FTA, it's close to Nigerian prince-quality ("your daughter is dead", "your wife is cheating", ...). Doesn't sound very sophisticated, but perhaps they did some profiling and that's the level they thought deemed suitable. I mean, some actually do fall for the prince-thing.

NSO says it sells only to governments and law enforcement. This includes by definition a lot of unsophisticated actors.