If I were to guess the method to the madness, I would think they've got the frameset from someone (a family member or something? They surely can't have actually bought it?) and built it up with nearly all new (but cheap) parts with the idea that this somehow makes it more valuable. They've managed to build the thing at no small effort, but with such awful choices. Just the shifters alone are bafflingly stupid.
I wondered if they'd taken the frame/other parts to a bike shop and asked them to get it going again.