Do people make bad moves on purpose?

I play mostly 3 minute games. I have noticed that I often lose games against players who make numerous "mistakes". Their mistakes may lose a pawn, or create a weaker position without losing material, or lose the exchange, etc. But the mistakes are small enough that it does not lead to checkmate quickly, and it takes me enough time figuring out how to exploit the mistake that I end up losing on time.

Do people make bad moves on purpose, or do people sometimes just get lucky?

Sometimes I do that, but only if the opponent is in time trouble.

Yesterday I played against someone who would move both knights to the A and H positions every game.  We played a series of games and I lost half of them, although I had a winning position almost every game if you ignored the clock. Maybe unusual middlegame moves can be as effective as unusual openings.

I am starting to think that putting a lot of effort into saving or gaining a pawn is poor strategy in 3 minute games. Maybe its a good strategy if you can learn ways to offer pawns in exchange for time on the clock.

I only make bad moves on purpose as a list ditch attempt in a lost game. I will threaten their queen with my queen with a move that appears to accomplish some other task, even though my queen is not protected and could be captured by their queen, and it is not rare for me to capture a queen this way.

I have also learned the hard way that a bad unexpected move can punish a premove in the opening.