He for sure could've but he stated pretty clearly in the finale fate or not this is what he wanted as well. He wanted to trample the world he wanted to lash out and destroy everything. When he says there was no other choice he didn't mean no other choice to save his friends he meant no other choice to save his friends AND destroy the outside world which he really wanted to do so badly he was willing to jeopardize saving his friends
I had already read the manga but went to a watch party for the finale last night and one of my homies a super Eren defender was going through it last night
Started the finale going "don't worry guys its all Ymir's fault he being controlled by her"
dialogue about Ymir chose to side with Erin not the other way around
"he's really doing it to save the island he didn't want to kill all these people there's no other way"
Eren later admits he kinda did it for himself and did want to kill all these people
Whole night was just some of us going
And my one homie and a couple other still trying to shoot him bail like
Imma miss attack on titan 10 years what a journey the ride was worth it.