From what if episode that all i can gather about Tony is that, he wants someone to save him so badly that Killmonger was able do that. (And Killmonger was deadly hot)
In MCU, Yinsen was the one who did that. He saved Tony, that was a impossible surgery and connecting someone to car battery? Everything could go bad so easily, hell, Yinsen could have say his injuries was severe that he didn’t make it. But he saved him. And died, planned to die from beginning that Tony didn’t see that because if someone can save people like that, he would wanted to live, right? No. He gets his sacrifice play from Yinsen. Save someone and pass along the title.
If MCU kept Yinsen alive, Tony would be a doll on strings to get approval of Yinsen, someway, anyway he could manage. He carried what Yinsen told him to the his last breath. And Yinsen was able to say all of them because at that point, he didn’t have anything to loose.
Also, i kinda like that dark path MCU took with What If. It is probably they realised they are loosing their customers(not watchers because it became an industry of it is own) because it has been 13 years and most of them are adults now and they dont want to see all that happening from Disney’s glittery lenses only. It is pretty Dark to be honest but it is safe place to explore of it.
But they keep killing them over and over. And i get that they kill the original six of the MCU because most of them are not in it anymore(they passed the titles over and Thor and Clint are about to too and probably Hulk to She-Hulk), but it has been 13 years and i am emotionally bonded to Tony, so it gets to me. How many time they are gonna kill him?
And i really do understand Tony’s falling for Killmonger’s tricks because that is mostly what happens to emotionally abused children when they grow up. Children/adults think someone helping them are sign of love and predators use that.
Tony might be genius but he was someone emotionally abused and has all the tells of the trauma.