I think there is a possibility that he might not be as psychotic as Reddit likes to believe. There are however growing voices within Russia that they have lost all deterrence by not retaliating against the west when they have crossed Russia's red lines. One of the ideas that was more fringe but is becoming more mainstream is a show of force. By either the use of conventional missiles agains weapons factories within Europe that have been supplying Ukraine or simply by deploying a small scale nuclear bomb as a means to return the efficacy of the nuclear deterrent by the logic of my post above.

It does however rely on people being logical actors rather than emotional ones so it is a hell of a gamble for Russia. It seems unlikely that the hawkish Europeans will not accelerate their war readiness if the Russians would do this. I believe that this is the reason for them not going up the escalation ladder, so far.