Dont wanna interact directly with the op so i'll just subtweet like a lowly human
I dont see Momota and Ouma as rivals and i dont think they were meant to be rivals either so criticizing them for being a bad rivalry doesnt make much sense to me
Their goals are different and I'd argue their initial antagonism is more about what they represent than who they are as individual (until it gets really personal in ch 4)
If Ouma supposedly figured him out since the beginning he wouldnt have said he was 'not boring', proving he's actually someone who goes beyond his expectations. He's actually thrown off by him a lot of times bc of how fundamentally different and seemingly baseless his way of thinking is
Now Momota, because he had a problem with Ouma's behaviour, tried to get him to change it or at least explain himself, and didnt ignore him
Until the fake mastermind reveal i think Momota saw him as just a classmate, annoying and who causes trouble for no reason, but still a classmate. So it wasnt as if he never treated him as human or something. And idk what more you need than him choosing to go along with Ouma's plan as proof of him recognizing his feelings and will, this is about actions not words.
My main point of disagreement is about Momota's comment on Ouma's last word's and how that supposedly throws away their development, i think it's the complete opposite.
Like i said earlier it's about actions not words. The lenghts he went to for the plan is already enough proof of his desire to end the game, what he says or not wont change that. Regardless of if they're true or not, he didnt say these words for himself, he said them for Momota, thinking it would be easier for him to follow the plan of a person who said that. So Momota's right in saying that it was to convince him imo.
Momota is good at giving others what they need to hear I think, like he did with Saihara and Harukawa at the end of the trial. And I think this comment was not something he said for the others but for Ouma. Regardless of what he thinks about it himself, he cast doubt upon his words and let his identity stay that of a liar. The fact that he went through with the plan is proof enough of what he thought of Ouma's will, because ultimately it's actions that count. Words dont matter yet they can give meaning and be given meaning, that was the case for both of them.
Also if you think that Ouma wouldnt have kicked Momota's ass to hell and back if he said to the others 'He was actually being sincere, he fought so hard for us uwu' i sincerely dont know what to tell you
More about the dynamic supposedly being one-sided, I'd argue Momota changed much more in contact to Ouma than the reverse, even if that process wasnt very pleasant, without the ch 4 fiasco making him rethink on a lot of things, i think ch 5 wouldve gone differently
But you can also say that without Momota being who he is Ouma would have gone with a different plan in ch 5 imo