"Easy the British cruisers were desperately low on fuel, so one day S or SE or even NE should lose them."
But he could not know that. Nor the radar problems. He did not dare call their bluff. And, even a little more damage would be catastrophic.
But assuming the worst is also not a good strategy. Deal with what is, not what ifs. Get out there. Saving crew lives aside, scuttling the ship is the most catastrophic result. Anything else is better. Sail out, fight off the cruisers, run for home or continue your mission.
Could anyone imagine the RN or IJN conducting themselves in a similar fashion? HMS Repulse engages a Deutschland and two Hipper class, for example. Repulse takes some mission-limiting damage but her fighting ability is mostly intact, and then runs into a foreign port, her captain assesses the coming battle and scuttles the ship? Jesus, he’d be hanged from the mast of the next passing RN vessel.
Of course the Articles were long replaced, but the spirit would still be in place for our unfortunate RN commander:
The 12th Article of War read as follows:"Every person in the fleet who, through cowardice, negligence or disaffection, shall in time of action withdraw, or keep back, or not come to the fight or engagement, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship....; every such person so offending and being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court martial shall suffer death