That was a long list of events,
but the two that stand out is the fact that Obamacare was exempt from a shutdown (talk radio hosts didn’t tell their audience this) and that the individual appropriations strategy called for by talk radio hosts violated the whole defund so called principle that they were supposedly committed to.
To make matters worse was the house bill to pay federal employees for the two weeks off.
After that all there was zero consistent point of it all.
A leader foresees the the battle field and deploys accordingly.
Niether boehner nor mcconnell had any stomach for a fight, and they still don't BTW, and so were looking for a safe landing spot from the beginning.
Technically the GOP had only limited options, nevertheless there were strategic victories to be had that were pissed away by feckless, clueless, spineless courtiers.