From Lando's perspective, McLaren is indeed better than Haas. From Haas' perspective... ...they needed the money, so would logically have at least tried.
And yes, the Mazepins did prefer Team Silverstone to Haas. One day they'll get the hint at Team Silverstone isn't theirs (it's still in the Appeals Court, and at least in theory they could still get the team if they win and get the right category of restitution), which is another reason I'd have expected Haas to bid - depending on a pay driver who wants to get out of your team ASAP without a backup plan is a bad idea. (OK, going for two drivers who want to get out ASAP isn't exactly ideal either...)
If Haas didn't realise the Norrises had money, they needed much better due diligence - it's not like the Norrises kept it a secret! (They just didn't make a big deal of it).
My point about the pay cut is that you can't have a pay cut if you are a pay driver, since pay drivers aren't paid in the first place. If Lando was on a salary that could be cut, even by a penny a year, he'd be a paid driver instead. This is due to minimum wage laws (which require £8.91/hour as a minimum), and if McLaren was bothering to pay a salary worth cutting, it wouldn't make sense to make that contingent on pay (when a strict minimum-wage salary could have done that just as well).
Dare is right to say that ridiculous amounts of money (from family or elsewhere) is needed to get onto the grid these days.