>>214304668
That's also what The Frontman wanted and Gi-hun did not want to become like The Frontman.
>>214304751
His ultimate goal was a naive desire to end the games. He viewed the guards as the inhuman monstrous "them", the contestants existed in a different "us" category. Even though he could have saved more contestants if he had killed some of those voting to continue the games, that would go against his principles and wouldn't accomplish his ultimate goal of ending the games entirely.
That was the one time he actually took initiative and did something in his life and it blew up in his face and resulted in the deaths of his friends. That broke him and he projected his own grief and feelings of failure onto Dae-ho. It was a moment of weakness where the protagonist lost himself and his principles. Very common trope.