They've only really known oil for 3 generations, so yes.
And they're also desperate. The future where the world doesn't need their oil (or they've run out) isn't a distant future anymore. It's coming, and coming faster and faster. They need to diversify anyway they can if they want to avoid going back to just being a desert. And so they're jumping at pretty much any deal they see
It's not coming and coming -- it's here. Prices are negative, and they need at least something like ~$60/barrel to keep their government running and closer to $80/barrel to keep their whole country running.
But yeah, I agree with your main point: they're jumping at deals and chasing big wins, a la Dubai. Cuz they don't really have any other choice.
Sheikh Rashid's quote [1] kind of sums up the desperation of several countries in the Middle East to somehow diversify out of oil: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel"
Sheikh Rashid was born in 1912. The quote talks about his great-grandson. That generation has been alive for a while and comfortably drives Land Rovers.
>The future where the world doesn't need their oil
We'll need oil for plastics even if we stop using it for transportation, and Saudi oil is just about the easiest/cheapest to extract, so we'll be using their oil for a long time, but it won't be as grotesquely profitable for them as in the past.
That the whole shooting match right there. "just convenient" is meaningless - we don't make anything unless the cost/benefit works out. If we didn't have oil, it'd be safe to say we'd never have adopted ubiquitous plastic at all.
