That's my opinion anyway. Kurita's job was to destroy the landing force and US Mistakes had given him his chance..
He failed in his mission.
There was no point in preserving his fleet. The war was lost,a victory here would have prolonged the war, but not changed the final outcome. More people on both sides would have died, so thank goodness he screwed up.


The Old US battle ships would not have made much difference, they were about out of main battery ammo.