You are presenting option 2 as though it "achieves his goal directly" but it also comes with significant costs which you completely elide. No option is clean.

You are presenting option 2 as though it "achieves his goal directly" but it also comes with significant costs which you completely elide. No option is clean. Why should Thomas do something direct if something indirect achieves his goal, if a little bit less, but with far fewer harms? Direct is not always better than indirect, especially in domains where any direct action has myriad indirect effects too.