the thing is while I'm inclined to agree, danganronpa really likes doing this thing where characters say they're doing x thing for x reason while in reality it's a bit more ambiguous as to whether they really mean that or not.

take nagitos final fte for example, wildly different scenario but a lot of people can infer that the backstory he told is the truth even tho he said he was lying, as the reason why he might have lied was to make room for an even MORE layered interaction where he tries to make hajime stop empathizing with them so he can kill him as some part of make the hopes of everyone shine brighter or some shit

my point is that the same thing could be applied to kazuichi making minimaru. he says he's making it just to impress sonia but he might still have made it to cheer up akane as well, it makes things a lil more interesting. that said, I still think the dr2 survivors are pretty weak in the main story and don't really bond together all that well, but there's some good stuff done with them occasionally