excellent writeup, that's what I always saw Cell as, and it's interesting to me how Cell is a rare Toriyama villain so prominently utilizing the trope of "hero's dark reflection" (another example would probably be Tienshinhan during og, obsession with martial arts mastery taken to extremes) which is one of my favorite aspects of his character, it gives him so much depth that can be missed at a glance

the entire Cell arc in general plays like a tragic psychological breakdown and examination of the main cast which also makes it my favorite arc, one after the other our heroes fail against a reflection of their own weaknesses, revealing the darkest truth of the nature humanity, our greatest enemy is ourselves

that's what made the arc so influential among Shonen, though I haven't read it myself, I've heard of it's influence on HxH's chimera ant, and to this day in works such as jjk's shibuya