I say Willingham botched the deal because he tried to screw over prefs. If he would have followed the law, then he wouldn't have been vetoed by the pref holders on the EC.
When someone tries to negotiate a deal that completely oversteps the bounds of the law and eventually gets vetoed, I call that botching the deal. IMO, if he would have done a better job by listening to other members on the EC, communicating with other members on the EC, not been selfish by paying himself as a commons-only holder, and followed the law, then I doubt the pref holders would have vetoed the deal.