Yes, in hindsight. If the combo appears to be dead, it eliminates the hard shot with hard position. My own tendency in a situation like this is to believe that the easy solution will work. That's a bad tendency.
Maybe fatigue & luck can also combine to delude. Even if the balls were dirty/sticky, the 3 looks too far away to throw, and making the combo by cutting the 8 might result in a CB kiss (?), or a scratch since it would likely have to be shot so hard to make, whitey might get away.
Just demonstrates the difference in thinking between record attempts & competition, where it’s always better to end up without a viable break shot than to sell out trying to make something that can’t go.