Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Drydock - Episode 321 (Part 1)" video.

Another factor in Kurita's favor at Leyte Gulf would be that most, if not all, of the US DDs had fired their torpedoes the night before, so they have no practical way of hurting battleships. On the other hand, the US had nearly complete air superiority. "Sea of Thunder" questions Kurita's will to fight, suggesting that a sighting report of a US task force to the north, had been fabricated as a face saving excuse to abort the mission and turn north.
1
@tomdolan9761 the plan was for the Japanese force to make it's exit through Surigao Strait, after raiding the beachhead. According to "Sea of Thunder", the southern force was "suggested" late in the planning, by some bright spark at HQ. Of course, dividing the force made it easier to defeat in detail. Also, according to the book, the Japanese officers were not thrilled about the prospect of attacking freighters that where largely empty by that time.
1
@tomdolan9761 I tried giving Leyte Gulf the alt history treatment, with the southern force being the section lead by the Kongos, going around Mindanao, rather than through Surigao, and attacking Taffy 1, to try and provoke Kinkaid moving his force off station to aid Taffy 1. But, in retrospect, Kinkaid did not send any help to Taffy 3, passing the buck to Halsey, so my alt history approach would have failed. Kinkaid appears to be content to see the Taffies slaughtered, rather than leave his defensive position in the Gulf. So the only alternative would be a unified center force, hitting Kinkaid head on. One interesting thing I noticed, Kurita literally crossed Shima's wake. Shima stopped to refuel at Coron, departing at 0200 on the 24th for Surigao. He could have waited about three hours, then fallen in like as Kurita passed Coron. With the forces of Kurita, Nishimura, and Shima combined, they are just about a match for Seventh Fleet. With Halsey successfully decoyed away, it would have been an epic brawl.
1