Interesting conundrum! I actually think/hope/believe/am still deluded enough to believe that he would say no. His vast publicity team didn't exactly manage the situation - and who could? I don't think any publicist could have predicted how badly that pairing would turn out, how instantly everyone would shout "fake" - it never happened wth any of her previous beards. Thus nobody could have contained it once it started down its preordained path. So doing it differently wasn't an option, I think.
I also think "doing it differently" isn't in the Taylor lexicon, or the point of a fake relationship. If a celebrity couple fall over in a forest and nobody sees them, does it make a noise? (Or something!!) My point is that there is no point in doing a fauxmance subtly. You have to get the pics out there. Not least because subtlety drags the whole process out for months longer, which any tolerably normal person would decline.
Would TH do it again assuming it could not have been executed better and ended the same way? I guess not. He can't possibly think this has improved his career or personal life - can he?!