This may be classic romanitas at work.
I've had to wonder, quite aside from Francis (possibly) thinking he might not make it through that operation, and wanting to squash the TLM (or try to) once and for all, no vacatio legis to stand in the way if he didn't pull through.
But on the other hand, did he actually use the situation, to "take out the belt", as it were, "crack the whip", thinking that he could scare people into not resisting Newchurch, or else they might lose the TLM altogether --- "if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding"?
Two things that stood out to me about TC, is that he didn't really criticize the TLM itself all that much, rather, he did not like the element it was attracting, and the growth it was engendering --- "if this keeps up, goodbye Vatican II, goodbye Novus Ordo" --- and also, he didn't mention the SSPX at all.
It struck me as the move of a desperate man running scared. Unless it wasn't.