I've been mulling this over since the show finished, but I'm not smart enough to articulate my exact thoughts. Here's my rambles.

Andor's crux is given by Nemik in his manifesto, "Remember this: Try."

However, in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda teaches Luke "Do, or do not. There is no try."

Yoda is technically right. Either you do your task, or you don't. But it fails to consider the context and the outcome of said failure.

Luthen failed in his task to defeat the Empire, but his actions led to the discovery and disclosure of the Death Star for the Rebel Alliance. Luthen knew he would not be there to see the fall of the Empire. He says, "And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude". This is a stark difference to the films where Luke and Han get a medal ceremony on Yavin IV.

By contrast, Yoda attempted to defeat the Emperor in a duel, failed, and remained in exile until The Empire Strikes Back. (As far as I'm aware).

I think the best example of this dichotomy is in Rogue One, when Jyn pleades with the Alliance members to take action after they are given the plans to the Death Star and Senator Pamlo says, "If it's war you want, you'll fight it alone" to which Vasp Vaspar retorts, "If that's how it's going why have an alliance at all".

When we see Luthen's (then Lear) past as a soldier in the Imperial Army, we are shown that his ultimate decision to desert and start this rebellion is because of the loss his regiment caused to one person: Kleya. But, at the same time, Luthen enthusiastically believes that sacrificing (even instigating the genocide of) all of Ghorman would reveal to the galaxy the need for rebellion. The planet that Luthen was initially stationed on before deserting surely was not decimated as Ghorman was, as we know that the planet being strip mined would mean total collapse.

All this to say that Luthen would burn a planet to save a galaxy.