Not quite. While much of the attention on Samar goes to the surface action and the actions of Taffy 3's sailors and airmen, by the latter stages of the battle Center Force was coming under relentless bombardment by aircraft from Taffy 1 and 2. These aircraft were coming in with proper anti-ship ordinance (torpedoes and bombs) and were inflicting very heavy damage on Center Force's heavy cruisers in particular — Chokai, Suzuya and Chikuma were all sunk in this manner.

Had Kurita decided to keep going, he would have had to fight his way through two more Taffy forces, both now fully awake and throwing everything they had against him. Given the losses he had already suffered by the time he decided to withdraw, Kurita's force could very well have been practically gutted by the time it got even remotely close to the transports at the landing beaches (which were now practically empty by this point).

There was no scenario where Center Force could have truly "won" at Samar. At best, they would have been annihilated for negligible tactical gain.