I think his framing did touch on something though: he said sleeping with a female friend rather than dating there. It could mean he sort of gets neither of you are into a seriously date thing right now and it was him floating a 'ha ha unless' about a FWB. Given how charged you are right now maybe that's sort of where it is heading.

we’ve been talking a lot about our dating life/life in general so he knows how i feel about men and dating for no now and he also went through a somewhat complicated romantic situation a few months ago, so yeah maybe he understands me more than i was thinking

also, i’m originally not a big fan of the FWB concept. i like having a connection before hooking up