> I wonder at what point the operating cost of those waiting leads them to just unload and destroy the ship?

(1) as I understand the effect of how it is stuck, you have to unload very carefully or you destroy the ship in the process, well before you are done, and

(2) unloading a massive cargo ship like this anywhere but a specialized port designed to handle such operations (even if it's not, say, stuck on both sides crossways in the Suez Canal) is...well, perhaps not technically impossible, but not an “oh, sure, we’ll just do that and get things resolved right quick” option.

That worked really well with the beached whale!