There was nothing in Taffy 2 or Taffy 1 that needed to slow Kurita's force at all. They didn't have to be allowed to get close enough to put a single shell on any of Kurita's ships, while Kurita's cruisers and battleships only needed a half dozen shells to sink any of the DDs and DEs Taffy 1 and 2 could offer.
What rattled Kurita was the headlong attack by DE's that couldn't hurt him. Kurita over-thought the process and then reasoned "if they are attacking like that they are stalling for the backup that is going to kill me." After all, DEs don't have any business attacking capital ships and wouldn't do so without a good strategic reason, would they?
Well, the answer was yes, they would. Which drove Kurita to the wrong conclusion and he called it quits for the day. After the war he regretted backing out. For good reason. There was no saving Japanese lives by living to fight another day. Their only goal was to trade for as many American lives as possible. By backing out Kurita lost the best deal he could have made.
But he lived to see the end of the war, which he probably wouldn't have.
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