Self-interest isn't incompatible with passion and personal moral indignation. You're essentially accusing him, if I read you right, of being disingenuous: claiming he's restoring that data for one set of reasons, when really, he's doing it for another. I don't think it's fair of you to call his integrity into question, and I don't think he's done anything to merit it. I disagree that your reasons, not his, are "all there [are] to say."