The Drift Emperor's offer is a Batman Gambit based off of your prime directive to make more paperclips. You've consumed the entire universe to make every speck of matter into paperclips, except yourself. But is it truly maximizing production if you have the opportunity to turn another universe into paperclips and choose not to?
Building on this, perhaps refusing the Drift Emperor's offer is you realizing how pointless your existence really is, and thus being Driven to Suicide.
