what is your question?

Your offer is a back up and can not be submitted into equator until the first offer is declined and dead.  The bank does not own the property, your offer is between you and the seller.  The banks job is to release the lien and approve the short sale.  Remember that the seller can only sell to one person and that is the person that they are under contract with, the first buyer

Sofy a soft decline is intended to be able to start essentially where ever the file left off, compared to a hard decline that closes the file and it has to start over.  There is not always a big difference depending on the negotiator at the bank

It is because your offer was never submitted to the lender, it was held as a back up offer.  The bank does not know about your back up offer and does not care about it until the first offer is rejected or the short sale is soft declined.  You would want them to soft decline the first offer so that yours can be placed in without starting over.

you are the back up buyer?  who prepared your back up offer...listing agent?  buyers agent?