If DeSantis will just veto any non-gerrymander map (looking likely at this point), why wouldn't the legislature just pass his map?
If they don't pass his map it'll just end up in the courts anyway because they'll have no map at all, so if they're afraid of the map ending up in court why don't they just pass DeSantis' map if it'll end up in court either way?
And if they really wanted to they could pass both DeSantis' map and their usual map as a backup in the case that DeSantis' map gets overturned by the courts.
The calculations for Democrats is different then republicans. The VRA works simultaneously for and against democrats depending on the state, but usually the most egregious gerrymanders done by democrats is in majority white areas (like Upstate New York or Down state Illinois) where there is little to no precedent prohibiting such, so there is little risk of a court challenge.
For Republicans trying to minimize democratic seats (especially in the south) means getting rid of minority seats, and if they over stretch they run the risk of having their whole map thrown out in a court challenge as what happened to North Carolina.
DeSantis is spending much of his energy on trying to nuke Lawson’s black plurality seat, something that most in the legislature seem to have no appetite for as they know it likely will be a lot of work and attention for no gain. The whole debacle really makes DeSantis look a lot less savvy
