I agree with Dick J; the Taffy ships and aircraft were attacking with such ferocity that anything Kurita could put up in the air would've been shot down (or rammed!) post haste. Also, I think Kurita (having been in the water recently) was exhausted and operating from his belief that he was facing an American main fleet rather than a tiny task force - he believed it was so and had no reason to counteract his own reality.