Sooo… I think this perspective is colored by Stampede’s characterization. I have zero care for what happens in the show, but I can speak on who Knives is in the manga.
Knives did not choose to be 'reborn' in this way. It was a decision made for him as a last ditch effort on a time crunch.
We don't know how Knives felt about it because we don't get his perspective. Vash interrupted him. We also don't know that the Dependent Plant died, as they are not human and have an energy lifecycle as established by the importance of black hair. Yes, the rebirth was violent, because this is the main villain's introduction. This is a storytelling technique.
Knives was one year old at the time of the Big Fall. Developmentally, he was probably sixteen years old at most. He woke up one night and decided to crash the ships because he was scared of the idea of sharing a future with humans he couldn't trust. He was not 'okay' with sacrificing Plants. He was a baby and he wasn't thinking about anything but his own survival because he was a child, not a mastermind.
Note that even though he is addressing a single Plant in this panel, he is actually talking to every Dependent Plant on the planet. Plants are a psychic hivemind, but we do not know this yet at this point in the story.
He apologizes for being rash and thoughtless, and then asks Dependent Plants for their help and to join him in running away.
Note how the Plant descends from the medium and approaches his hand. He does not violently take her from her bulb. This is shorthand for accepting his proposal.
And what are Knives's goals at this point? To collect all of the Plants, leave, and then abandon humans to die in the sun.
It actually takes work to get the Dependents to leave Knives. The entire point of the 'final battle' is revealing that Plants have their own feelings and ability to choose. The Plants still not collected by Knives chose not to use their power to shoot him, even when directed to by the humans that controlled them. They took convincing by the human teams trying to communicate with them that they were worth another chance. Even Vash could not demand that they separate. They had to choose this for themselves.
In the end, the Dependents choose to leave Knives and return to humans. They are collapsed into a helpless body slop that needs to be put on life support. They chose this over running away to the stars.
They had initially wanted the same thing as Knives, which was to leave the planet and face no more abuse. This is not 'being used for his goals' in the context of the story.
When Knives is in the process of being unfused with, he attempts to take the Plants back by force. He is booted out because they don't want him anymore. There is nothing that Knives could have done because ultimately he is defeated by consent lol.
And, even though he tried to truly 'take' them at the very end, look at how the Dependent angel still reaches back for him. The Plants still love him despite what they chose for themselves.
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