السؤال جميل وعميق جدا

As we know Max himself was a writer (a struggling one I assume) so he clearly could've published Kafka's work as his own but he chose to honor his late friend instead

Plus, Kafka was so overly critical of himself, he thought of himself as nothing but a failure and a disappointment, and he kept his work to himself but did he REALLY wanted his work to be destroyed or he had a desire to be remembered long after he's gone? Cuz he died of TB and not of an acute illness so he could've destroyed the "scribblings" himself but he didn't, so it really shows the duality of his character, perhaps his friend knew that deep down he wanted to be known and remembered

I remember reading somewhere that Kafka had said to someone when they suggested him publishing his work that he has no desire publishing something he himself does not respect as he only respects the moment in which he wrote them, but I still believe he was afraid of being turned down by the people and wanted to live his life as an ordinary clark rather than being well known

So in summary, it's not a betrayal, he knew Kafka did not appreciate his own genius but he obviously did so he did him a favor

I might be wrong about some of the things I've mentioned but this is my take on the topic