Zondaracer - see posts #29-#30:
In discussion with clearance delivery, the pilot was asked "you want to do a VFR pattern? - a lap and land?" - the pilot replied "Affirm"
He accepted a clearance to remain in the pattern and land, and that is how the tower vectored him.
Maybe the pilot thought he was requesting a VMC departure as you suggest (which is how I'd have expected this to play out) - but that's not what the clearance controller heard, and on double-checking that the pilot was requesting a standard C172-style practice pattern, the pilot affirmed that. A classic "failure to communicate" in both directions in five brief - but critical - transmissions.