I wouldn't say that exactly. Honesty above most things. Sometimes, someone deserves the lie. They deserve to be shielded from a horrible truth. That's my take anyway.
I feel that he compromised things based upon an unforeseen event. As far as I understood things, the events that I described happened within about two days from each other.
What I think happened is that his students messed up the analysis. In his attempt to protect them, he hide the issue initially to figure out what happened. However, events unfolded quickly when he spent so much time trying to cover for them that he missed their training.
Once he missed the training, that's when he made the conscious decision to withhold.
That wasn't the worse of it.
I figured out what he did while I built that lab in record time. When I questioned him about it he confessed. I told him all he had to do was admit his mistaken. He refused. I shed no tears over the consequences, but I did feel sorrow.
RE: Dead Man's March