I only think the last reason is actually reasonable. You can argue that all the other small ships that they sacrificed could have also turned tail and gave it a

I only think the last reason is actually reasonable. You can argue that all the other small ships that they sacrificed could have also turned tail and gave it a go, even if it was difficult. However, the blast radius part wouldn't make as much sense, because the escape pods were likely fairly close, just at some orthogonal vector. However, this is all besides the point. The real problem is that the hyperdrive weapon was never motivated and it introduces plot holes in past movies.