But again, Goku didn't deliberately decide not to save them. He saved Mr. Satan and Dende because they were right in front of them, thought he could reach the kids, but couldn't.
You're projecting nonsense onto a show that doesn't do subtext. You think Goku would have been so shaken up afterwards if he was like "Nah, fukk 'em"? Mr. Satan was far more useless than Gohan could've ever been - we only know he wound up coming in handy IN HINDSIGHT.
Goku grabbed the first person he saw cuz it was the right thing to do but couldn't save everybody. End of story.
Also, Gohan never got beat up when he had the power advantage. The only reason things went left against Buu was because Buu faked everybody out with his little explosion - he had all that shyt planned from the moment he sensed Gohan's ki.