I believe they’ll make a deal with Joe to slow-walk any prosecution of his family members if he announces he’s NOT going to run. And this will give him time to pardon them all on the way out the door. Leaving EVERYONE involved with a way to save face. The Repubs can say “We did everything we could! We just ran out of time, and he pardoned them”. And the Dems to say “He was old and senile, and corrupt. And as soon as we knew, we filed the charges, but he thwarted us!”
I think what you said is quite possible.
This whole thing may be orchestrated so that everyone will save face, and we will never see Hunter Biden in a courtroom, much less a jail cell.
To be on the safe side, the next President will pardon Joe Biden. If they can they will try to make that someone other than Kamala...but it is almost certain to be a Democrat.