In the Strassen algorithm, to compute the product of two matrices $\mathbf{A}$ and $\mathbf{B}$, the matrices $\mathbf{A}$ and $\mathbf{B}$ are divided into $2 \times 2$ block matrices and the algorithm proceeds recursively computing $7$ block matrix-matrix products as opposed to a naive $8$ block matrix-matrix products, i.e., if we want $\mathbf{C}=\mathbf{A} \mathbf{B}$, where $$\mathbf{A} =\begin{bmatrix} \mathbf{A}_{1,1} & \mathbf{A}_{1,2} \\ \mathbf{A}_{2,1} & \mathbf{A}_{2,2} \end{bmatrix} \mbox { , } \mathbf{B} = \begin{bmatrix} \mathbf{B}_{1,1} & \mathbf{B}_{1,2} \\ \mathbf{B}_{2,1} & \mathbf{B}_{2,2} \end{bmatrix} \mbox { , } \mathbf{C} = \begin{bmatrix} \mathbf{C}_{1,1} & \mathbf{C}_{1,2} \\ \mathbf{C}_{2,1} & \mathbf{C}_{2,2} \end{bmatrix}$$ then we have $$ \mathbf{C}_{1,1} = \mathbf{A}_{1,1} \mathbf{B}_{1,1} + \mathbf{A}_{1,2} \mathbf{B}_{2,1}\\ \mathbf{C}_{1,2} = \mathbf{A}_{1,1} \mathbf{B}_{1,2} + \mathbf{A}_{1,2} \mathbf{B}_{2,2}\\ \mathbf{C}_{2,1} = \mathbf{A}_{2,1} \mathbf{B}_{1,1} + \mathbf{A}_{2,2} \mathbf{B}_{2,1}\\ \mathbf{C}_{2,2} = \mathbf{A}_{2,1} \mathbf{B}_{1,2} + \mathbf{A}_{2,2} \mathbf{B}_{2,2} $$ which requires $8$ multiplications. Instead in Strassen, we compute $$ \mathbf{M}_{1} := (\mathbf{A}_{1,1} + \mathbf{A}_{2,2}) (\mathbf{B}_{1,1} + \mathbf{B}_{2,2})\\ \mathbf{M}_{2} := (\mathbf{A}_{2,1} + \mathbf{A}_{2,2}) \mathbf{B}_{1,1}\\ \mathbf{M}_{3} := \mathbf{A}_{1,1} (\mathbf{B}_{1,2} - \mathbf{B}_{2,2})\\ \mathbf{M}_{4} := \mathbf{A}_{2,2} (\mathbf{B}_{2,1} - \mathbf{B}_{1,1})\\ \mathbf{M}_{5} := (\mathbf{A}_{1,1} + \mathbf{A}_{1,2}) \mathbf{B}_{2,2}\\ \mathbf{M}_{6} := (\mathbf{A}_{2,1} - \mathbf{A}_{1,1}) (\mathbf{B}_{1,1} + \mathbf{B}_{1,2})\\ \mathbf{M}_{7} := (\mathbf{A}_{1,2} - \mathbf{A}_{2,2}) (\mathbf{B}_{2,1} + \mathbf{B}_{2,2}) $$ and obtain $\mathbf{C}_{i,j}$'s using $\mathbf{M}_{k}$'s as $$ \mathbf{C}_{1,1} = \mathbf{M}_{1} + \mathbf{M}_{4} - \mathbf{M}_{5} + \mathbf{M}_{7}\\ \mathbf{C}_{1,2} = \mathbf{M}_{3} + \mathbf{M}_{5}\\ \mathbf{C}_{2,1} = \mathbf{M}_{2} + \mathbf{M}_{4}\\ \mathbf{C}_{2,2} = \mathbf{M}_{1} - \mathbf{M}_{2} + \mathbf{M}_{3} + \mathbf{M}_{6} $$ However, the choice of the matrices $\mathbf{M}_k$'s seem arbitrary to me. Is there a bigger picture as to why we choose these specific products of sub-matrices of $\mathbf{A}$ and $\mathbf{B}$? Also, I would expect $\mathbf{M}_k$'s to involve $\mathbf{A}_{i,j}$'s and $\mathbf{B}_{i,j}$'s in a symmetric fashion, which does not seem to be the case here. For instance, we have $\mathbf{M}_2: = (\mathbf{A}_{2,1}+\mathbf{A}_{2,2})\mathbf{B}_{1,1}$. I would expect its counterpart say $\mathbf{A}_{1,1} (\mathbf{B}_{1,2} + \mathbf{B}_{2,2})$ also to be computed. However, it is not since it can be obtained from other $\mathbf{M}_k$'s.
I would appreciate if someone could throw some light on this.