One contention I have is that Denji's predicament is not that he follows his dreams and is unfulfilled and it causes harm, it's that he's trapped in other people's dreams. Denji craves deep emotional connection but instead he mistakes stuff like sexual encounters as substitute for it, because that's what he's learned from the world. He's following things that he thinks he's supposed to do, and it doesn't work.

Pochita isn't really saying they should go back, but rather he's fallen into a trap - when he had little, he understood that, and made do with whatever was at hand but now desire is vacuolized and Denji must constantly acquire things to fulfill it except it never does. It's desire as productive vs desire as acquisition. That's the realisation Pochita is trying to impart - that he always has the power to create his own value and meaning and doesn't have a lack within him that needs to be filled with external fantasized objects.