The more I think about Sock Opera in light of the Book of Bill, the more I wonder if Bill possessing Dipper had nothing to do with the portal and everything to do with the journal containing potentially intimate details of Bill's relationship with Ford and possibly helping Dipper bond with the guy.
First of all, the reason Bill gives for possessing Dipper? "You've been getting way too close to figuring out some major answers." He immediately clarifies that he's got big plans and doesn't need Dipper getting in the way, but, well, think about it.
Bill wanted that portal opened. It was instrumental to his "big plans" that a hole get punched in this dimension. And Dipper finding out the truth would have helped that happen, because if Dipper had figured out that the purpose of Stan's activities was to get Stan's brother back, Dipper would likely have decided not to try to intervene with the portal opening at all. He would have known it wasn't going to end the world and might even be hyped to finally meet the author of his beloved journals. Also, if Dipper was possessing the only copy of Journal 3 and Bill destroyed it, the portal would not have been able to be opened at all. Perhaps Bill had assumed he could trick Stanley into a deal using his knowledge of the access codes, but even if you assume Bill didn't think there was any chance that Stan would turn him down, that would still delay (not to mention endanger) the payoff of getting the portal open. However, we know that Dipper was not possessing the only copy of Journal 3, because Stan had already made a perfect clone of it using that magic copy machine from Double Dipper. It also seemed that Stan at least got the activation started pre-Sock Opera, and the whole house wasn't Bill-proofed (especially not the room with the copier) so it would be odd if Bill didn't know that Stan already had an extra copy.
So why would Bill want to take actions that would permanently halt Dipper's attempts to get more information on the author of the journals?
Well, you know what else was in Journal 3, as revealed in the Book of Bill? Karaoke night, when Bill and Ford got extremely drunk, Bill was potentially naked depending on how you interpret the lack of shading on his limbs, and they sung their hearts out to Disco Girl. Also the day before karaoke night, when Bill attempted to give Ford a birthday present by killing several rats in the shape of Ford's name and Ford was horrified but appreciative of the effort. And the day Bill showed Ford the last speck of his former home Euclydia, which we know Bill destroyed, and claimed "a monster" destroyed it.
Stuff that wasn't revealed in the Book of Bill are fairly telling too. Pre-betrayal, Ford talks about how he's always eager to hear from Bill and how honored he feels to have been chosen. Ford also mentions that he likes the dreams his muse (Bill) gives him because his muse says his favorite gum will come back in style (which is pretty personal). Ford is shown playing chess with Bill on the show, which he could have reasonably documented. Ford lists "William" as one of his favorite constellations (it looks like a triangle with a bow-tie).
Bill is shown to be horrible at emotional intimacy and deeply in denial about his feelings. The Axolotl, who is portrayed as analogous to the Abrahamic God, describes Bill as "SAYS HE'S HAPPY, HE'S A LIAR. BLAME THE ARSON FOR THE FIRE," which outright says that Bill's happy party-animal thing is a front and also heavily implies that he finds it easier to pretend to have done something on purpose than admit to what really happened. In the Book of Bill, he tries to play it off like he never really died and always gets his way even though he's actually involuntarily institutionalized and literally falling apart after reading some words from Stanley. He also tried to share his tragic backstory to humanize himself and disassociated halfway through-- not the first time he's done this, apparently, as he shares disassociating in front of a barber shop pole (colored red and blue like his mom and dad) for a billion years like it's a fun party story. Ford shares his guilt and misgivings about Stanley and Bill's response is to basically tell Ford not to waste his time on somebody he should have eaten in the womb and then make the conversation about himself. In the show proper, Bill possessing Dipper blew the best chance he had to hold the show hostage by making a glib comment about who would sacrifice anything for their stupid sibling (prompting Mabel to realize how selfish she was being and sacrifice the show to fight Bill). Hell, you could argue Mabelland as a whole represents Bill's approach to emotions-- he just painted everything with fake smiles and fake flattery, promising anybody who stayed their deepest desires as long as they never questioned too much or tried to move on from the place to face reality.
I mean, with all that in mind, yeah Bill is looking at Dipper and thinking, "This kid knows too much." But it has nothing to do with the portal or Ford and everything to do with Dipper potentially finding out about Bill's emotional issues and intimate moments with Ford.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that Ford talks lovingly in detail about Fiddleford in Journal 3 (both in the official release and the missing pages in the Book of Bill). The laptop that Dipper was trying to crack (and Bill wanted to destroy) was Fiddleford's. Fiddleford is quite clearly very important to Ford, as Ford refuses to speak badly of him even after Fiddleford has literally started a memory-erasing cult and he frequently expresses to Fiddleford how happy he is not to be alone anymore. Bill had very clearly wanted to push Fiddleford out of Ford's life-- implicitly possessing Ford to break the snowglobe Fiddleford lovingly made for him, imploring Ford to release the axolotl Fiddleford offered as a companion even though Ford loved it, dropping hints that Fiddleford was unreliable and lacked resolve, referring to Fiddleford as the third-wheel hillbilly in a way reminiscent of a jilted lover... not to mention the portal accident, where Bill was at minimum happy to keep removing his exoskeleton to feed despite the obvious adverse mental effects it was having on Fiddleford.
And it's because when Ford has friends on his side, Bill's endgame is harder to attain. For one, it's because Bill is possessive. When Weirdmageddon starts and Bill has the chance to do anything he wants with or to Ford, the first thing he does is turn Ford into a backscratcher and use him as a fidget toy. Ford is implied to have no awareness that this even happened so he can't fight back or have a say in anything. Literally, in Bill's perfect world, Ford would be an object that only exists for Bill's comfort. Other people get involved and suddenly old Fordsy can't merely be defined by everything Bill does to him.
But also, when Ford is isolated, Bill is better able to manipulate him and the people around him. Keep in mind, the rift ultimately only broke because Mabel wasn't told about it or its significance, meaning that she had no way to know that giving it to the wrong person would end disastrously. Nobody knew of its significance except for Ford and Dipper, and the latter honored the former's request to tell nobody about the rift. Ford in turn wasn't talking about the rift because he had severe trust issues and Bill had been communicating with him to gloat, precisely with the intention of destabilizing Ford. Ford's decisions also get a lot worse when he's alone. The summoning of and subsequent friendship with Bill Cipher, brought on by Ford's loneliness and past experience with bullying, was the hugest mistake by far. The whole TRUST NO ONE thing at the root of his issues was also forged in the ashes of Ford's friendships with Fiddleford and Bill.
(If I can bring in a little fanon, I'd also like to point out how common it is for No Portal AUs to bring up how quickly Stan finds workarounds for Bill possessions that still allow Ford to sleep. Ford alone in canon immediately just jumped to WELP CAN'T SLEEP EVER UNTIL BILL DIES and stuck to it when there might well have been better and healthier alternatives available that he simply wasn't able to see on his own. Again, the way things wind up going in canon means we can't confirm if those fan alternatives would have worked, but I just find that interesting enough to mention.)
And Dipper and Ford obviously have so much in common. They both love Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons, they're both curious and scrappy and willing to entertain what most people brush off, hell they even have anomalous traits that they can relate to each other with (Ford's six fingers, Dipper's Big Dipper birthmark).
So if Dipper decided that he liked Ford enough to reach out on his own (as he ultimately did in the DDMD episode), well... that's a threat to Bill. Because we all know Dipper isn't going to stand for Bill's shit, or Ford's self-deprecation. Hell, Dipper and Mabel are ultimately instrumental to Ford and Stan's twin switch, as they distract Bill long enough for the two to come up with a plan and swap outfits. So Dipper can't know about Ford too early and seek him out. What better than to set things up so Dipper gets so distracted he stops investigating and then ends up with a red herring about the loony hillbilly being the author?
There's a comment from series creator Alex Hirsch that I don't necessarily agree with but do think is relevant as well. It's that if Dipper had taken the apprenticeship, he would have ended up like Fiddleford McGucket, because like McGucket, Ford sees Dipper as somebody who will say yes to him. I could write a whole essay on how that contradicts what Ford stands for based off of his behavior and how Ford isn't just an arrogant glory hog and yadda yadda yadda... BUT, if Alex Hirsch is thinking of it, you had better believe Bill Cipher can too. How likely is it that Bill saw how compatible Dipper was with Ford and, remembering how important Fiddleford was to Ford and how much Ford regretted not listening to Fiddleford, acted to prevent Dipper from becoming somebody who supports Ford and keeps him from being completely alone and disconnected from the world?
So yeah, tl;dr: Bill wanted to stop Dipper from finding out about Bill and Ford's intimate relations, and also isolate Ford by throwing a potential great friend off the scent.
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