At the time, I figured that there was more to this than meets the eye. Maybe Spanos is really just this dumb.
Essentially, Spanos made himself and his team sad Oliver Twist characters (may I have some more please?) paying Kroenke gobs of money for the privilege of being in Kroenke and the Rams digs.

But even more, San Diego served the Chargers well; they were well supported and without competition and unlikely to have any. They were far enough from LA that the Rams and Chargers wouldn't be head to head rivals. And there was a deal to be had but San Diego was not about to saddle their citizens with some new enormous debt to please Spanos's ego.

But now, in LA, there is (was?) a battle for the market and Spanos is behind the 8 ball. The Rams have the hot young HC, the hot young QB, the hot young RB, the bright and shiny 6-0 record and every national football show focuses on them and the incredible new stadium complex underway. It will ALWAYS be seen as the Kroenke/Rams stadium and never the Chargers stadium. The Chargers just appear as hitchhikers. And while that may not be fair, in the entertainment world perception is reality.

If I'm San Diego the only way I take them back is with absolutely not one dime of city money invested.
But really, I'm not entirely sure that anything takes place while Spanos still owns the team. I don't think the league is very happy with him and would hold out the carrot of allowing the team to relocate again (sans the $1/2 billion fee) if the team was sold to the right guy.

Kroenke has to be laughing all the way to the bank.