Though not at all defending nor recommending what the Aerostar pilot did I can stretch my mind to the point where he realized the error much earlier than might appear, and initiated the go around, then the plane settled on, and most of the damage occured, as it began to accelerate.
I cannot advocate a prolonged flight following such an abnormal event, but I can see the wisdom in flying to the next suitable airport to handle the aircraft once on the ground. There are aircraft which have been sadly written off, simply because the location of the minor event made it major.
But, in the end, I think that we'd all agree that assuring the configuration is the best of all....