The thing is the circumstances of the Uchiha massacre is so contrived and forced and they kept adding shyt to the event to make Itchai "face turn" go down better(like Obito helped him/Uchiha are genetically emotional) that it does indeed actually makes Itachi look like he made the wrong choice, so in that sense he is a c00n.
Put it this way, they wrote themselves into a corner, they have to setup a "no other option" conceit for itachi but the naruto world of part 1 doesn't lend itself well with a justifiable genocide setup making sense, so they had to go back and muck with the characterization of the village leadership to make the storyline work.
First, the plot point about Hiruzen being soft with Orochimaru got retconned into him being a life long indecisive weak willed pacifist p*ssy rather than how it was portrayed in part 1 as a special inner conflict over killing someone he loved as a son to add to the drama of the fight, hence why his Monkey summon said that Hiruzen is not acting like himself during the battle, i.e 3rd has no history of being soft/indecisive. Well, the Monkey summon must've been mistaken because here comes Danzo. And this is where the writing goes stupid.
Hiruzen is now booked as a p*ssy/idiot to explain away why despite knowing of the uchiha grievances in advance, he made ZERO attempt to pursue peaceful resolution. But what he did do is let Danzo talk him into spying on them. This is the same Danzo that Hiruzen blocked from being Hokage and the Danzo that he knows schemed and tried to kill him. And Hiruzen knows from past experience going with Danzo's suspicions over his own gut is what instigated the entire conflict with the uchiha in the first place. Hiruzen wanted them to join in the 9 tails fight but let himself be talked out of it by Danzo, that was the catalyst.
With all that background, it just make no sense why Hiruzen would go with Danzo plan again over his own. And that's the point, Hiruzen has to be a push over and Danzo has to be evil so the audience will(suck off itachi) & buy into the idea Itachi had no choice but genocide because the village leadership is beyond broken/corrupt. In that sense, Itachi's father is the one in the right, why is itachi riding with the village when the leaders are incompetent/blood thirsty.
And lets say Itachi had to deal with the immediate situation first to prevent a greater war(which I never fukking bought once, Orochimaru/Pain invasion left the village weak and no one tried to invade them) so he kills the uchiha men, women, and children in their bed, why not kill Hiruzen and Danzo right after them or at some point? They're the casual variables that fukked everything up so badly he had to genocide his own race. You can kill babies but not them?