Its very important to understand the meaning of the sentence. The gist of this sentence is that,
X conceived an idea as a method to do something but sadly it became something else.
Now try to replace " conceived an idea as " with " conceived an idea to be ". Do you see the problem?
X conceived an idea as a method to do something but sadly it became something else.
Now try to replace " conceived an idea as " with " conceived an idea to be ". Do you see the problem?