True! I think I'd go that direction, too. But I can imagine someone else being like "nerve pain sucks and it's just a finger" about it.

I just think the option was between two different surgeries, neither with an ideal outcome, not between just waiting for it to heal and amputation, so it's not as silly a decision as it first seems.

Lucky for you that you've never been in that position. You don't get to decide "I'll just remove it later if it doesn't work out". That's considered an elective amputation and a cause to send someone to the psych ward - yes, even if there's pain resulting from a severe injury and subsequent surgery. When given the option of restorative surgery that may repair it or may leave you with no function and lifelong unbearable nerve pain, or the option to amputate which will remove functionality but at least have predictable results, you need to make your decision at that point. Once you have one of them done, you can't go back and say "ya know what, this isn't working, I want you to go the other way instead". I have lived with the unbearable nerve pain and zero functionally after reconstructive hand surgery and have begged for decades to go back and do the amputation instead. Enough nerve pain that I have threatened to self-amputate, that I have attempted to take my life. None of that matters, the pain is dealt with medically, not surgically, no matter how much you tell them the medical options don't help.

When this athlete says he made an informed decision - I know that means he found out what the potential was and that he asked if he would be able to make a new decision if he first tried to repair it.

I've known many people that had similar surgeries that it worked just fine, and many others that live in constant pain. There's no formula to know which way it will go, and we still know so little about how the brain interprets pain, especially nerve pain, that there is so little we can do for it.

That’s why you’re not an Olympian!