It's still a good "what if", though. He'd made it through the first 13.9 of 14 games with only one tactical blunder. Even if he was overwhelmingly more likely to blunder than Gukesh in the final position (between time management, mental exhaustion, and the fact that the position isn't dangerous for Black at all while it's slightly dangerous for White), he was still an overwhelming favourite at that point to play 10 more reasonable moves and make it to the tie breaks, where several factors would have worked in his favour.

Something doesn't gotta give, when there's only a few moves left in a simplified position.