To understand what I'm saying spitfire you would have to look deeper into the emotional part of the anime..
and as far as gundams go-do keep in mind that the Justice and Freedom were destroyed as well and kira and athrun still went back to those..They're not just machines they actually do stand for something...if that wasn't the case then athrun would of piloted the legend just for the sake of having a better machine....
but there were reasons why he didn't do it ,....which are known all to well...