I feel we shouldn’t argue too much over this one - there’s little information to go on.
But one possible picture, given what I’ve read, is that Hawes could have written his implementation quite independently, and well before any deal with IBM, and that IBM could have taken the position that a license was needed and a deal was needed. IBM could surely out-spend Commodore on lawyers, so Commodore could have done a deal regardless of their beliefs about the need for a license.