You're 100% right that the 'circus' factor will probably lead to him leaving Montreal one way or the other.
The answer to the boldfaced question is that we have a GM who is a proven idiot. He thinks getting rid of players he personally dislikes constitutes improvement of the hockey team.
Now, if we think he's a proven idiot, how can we simultaneously demand that he trade Pacioretty? Good question.
The choice would seem to be between
-arguing in favour of hockey moves that make sense, even though we know MB can't be trusted to do them, OR
-arguing against making ANY major moves because MB can't be trusted to make sensible moves.
I can certainly see the logic of saying "be careful what you wish for when it comes to Bergevin." It's true, he could well turn around and trade Patches for Lucic or something. But the point of a message board is partly to talk about what we think the Habs should do. Looked at from a rational point of view - not Bergevin's, but that of a human who knows what they're doing - trading Pacioretty for a C or LD makes a lot of sense as is probably what teams with competent leadership would have already done by now. That's the point we're making.
That said, one question that we probably haven't considered systematically enough is: what exactly is Max Pacioretty's trade value? Is it realistic to think we could get a #1A C for him, or a #2 d-man? Obviously, people like me assume that this is realistic. But if it's not, then what IS a realistic return?