Not so much. Waid is showing us a couple of things:
1) The Plutonian is more sensitive than he wants to admit to people's opinions of him.
2) The Plutonian doesn't always use the best judgement.
3) The Plutonian (like Busiek's Samaritan) never gets to rest, due to his need to desire to help people combined with his inability to shut them out.
4) The Plutonian was, over time, slowly beginning to HATE the people he was saving.
5) The Plutonian is responsible for the death of tens of thousands of people, even if unintentionally.
The core driving idea of Irredeemable is: 'what if Superman was not emotionally able to handle being a superhero?' and this whole story is part of driving that forward.