Agreed. Exercising and paying the tax liability with cash is obviously equivalent to an open market purchase of the same number of shares, as the exerciser could turn around and immediately sell all the shares and have (after taxes) additional cash equal to the current market price of the shares. So he/she exchanges cash for share ownership at the market price. If the options are not expiring, in theory (and probably only in theory) that can be more bullish than an open market purchase as the effective cost is the market price plus the option premium for the remaining time of the option.
That said, all the exercise-and-hold transactions were quite old... the most recent was in February 2024 (stock in the teens I believe), and one before that was April 2023 (stock in the low 30s if I am not mistaken). So while clearly a bullish signal then, if they didn't change their perception of value, one would expect heavy buying in the recent prices. Unless, of course, there are M&A discussions that prevent them from doing that (one hopes).
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