The 3 bears came not together, as he wrote on Russian forum 1 was on first day, 2 others on second, he used same tactics to scare all of them.
Biggest mistake as he wrote was that he tried to pull liferaft from sinking helicopter (he pulled it underwater yet), instead of saving satphone or inReach.
The ice floe was close (50m) and as I understood he was swimming to it not sailing.
Survival suit saved him life, without it he didn't live out even 2 hours.
Assuming that the above quote is correct;
Wet and on an 'ice floe' and he'd rather have a phone than a life raft
Surely even the most basic of liferafts would satisfy the principles of survival, isnt the clue in the name!
Protection
Location
Water
Food
Especially as it was so instrumental in not only basic survival, but even more importantly the polar bear scare tactic.
But that's my opinion, even at NASA the experts opinions on liferafts differ;
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/166504main_Survival.pdf