Sometimes in business you have to humour the other side to get what you want.
Maybe we didn't want to work to a deadline? Understandable. Still, its their asset we want (and, supposedly, we do want him), so maybe we have to give a little.
There are ways to deal with that kind of thing without necessarily knocking anyone's nose out of joint.
What have we gained by dismissing them out of hand if it means they're completely unwilling to deal now? We might feel chuffed with ourselves but it still means we risk running an 18 year old kid into the ground cos we have nobody else of real class.
So you’re saying we should have humoured them by paying exactly what they demand when they demanded it. Give over.