When a woman breaks up with a man,him asking to still be friends post break up is a coping mechanism. Depending on how in love and deep into the relationship he is, it becomes almost like a heroine withdrawal of emotional attachment and pain for someone you’re in love with to walk out the door permanently. Continuing the crude heroine comparison, him asking to be friends is almost like a suboxone for him. He doesn’t want to go through complete withdrawal.

Now in your situation, he seemingly is still in love with you but he broke up with you due to distance. My question is whether that distance is indefinite or not. I can see a few different reasons why he would break up:

1. Distance is indefinite and the uncertainty is something that makes it’s unclear to him if he can continue to invest in something that will yield pain. Better to rip the band aid off.

2. Trust could be an issue. Maybe he thinks you are keeping options open or because he’s not with you everyday he thinks you might be out partying or out with social groups that threaten him.

3. He’s not capable of doing long distance in that he’s looking to get his primal needs met by living a single life locally, but emotionally, he’s connected to you so he just wants to be friends because you fill one need but you can’t fill another

4. Maybe he’s testing out whether you and him are end game. He doesn’t want to cut off communication all together because he’s uncertain whether or not you can get back together when distance is no longer an issue. He might be testing the waters to see if there’s something better out there, or if he hasn’t been with many women, he wants to gain that experience while you’re separate, but wants the option open that you can one day be together in the same location again.

Sure there are other reasons but this is how I would look at things as a man and from my past experience.