1. Yes and yes
2. I'm now going to rant for a bit so feel free to carry on with your day because otherwise you might be here a while...

First, credit to the second zebra you linked. I love and agree with their explanation of how, with the canonical line, Geto—who by that point in the story believes the "strongest" should rule over the "weak"—Geto is saying: If you have the resolve to kill me, then you are truly the strongest, and you have the right impose your will just as I am imposing mine. It's a twisted sign of respect (one which arguably only dehumanises Gojo further by emphasising his strength as his only valuable trait).

I view the original draft as an unrefined attempt to convey that same point. I certainly do not see it as a "missed opportunity to make Gojo and Geto's parting more heartbreaking" like the author of the article I linked above does, apparently too fixated on what he thinks the text should have been, what Gege should have done, to appreciate what it actually is, what Gege wanted to achieve.

The first zebra's claim that the original draft is important because it indicates that Geto "doesn't want Gojo to end up like him" and "knows what he's doing is wrong" not only ignores that it is a draft—ultimately discarded and so asinine to ascribe as much meaning as if it were in the final publication—but also Geto's core ideology.

Geto's entire plan is to eradicate all non-sorcerers. He devotes ten years to consuming the curses that taste like shit and vomit in its name; it is what he raises Mimiko and Nanako to become murderers for.

If Geto is willing to kill billions of innocent people, why would he suddenly care about the morality of killing one person (himself)? The idea that he draws the line at Gojo killing him to protect Gojo's soul, while the ambition he spends the next decade working towards is to commit a genocide of the entire human race, is narratively inconsistent.

Moreover, "Just be careful to not kill anyone besides me" reads as a piss take when you realise that it is an impossible condition. Gojo's cursed technique is Limitless and Infinity; his ultimate move (the bitter fruit of his ascension as "the strongest", and specifically the one he impulsively makes the hand motion for in that scene) is Hollow Purple—an imaginary mass that erases everything in its path. There is no "surgical" way for Gojo to kill only Geto in that dense Shinjuku crowd, even if he were to stick only to Blue and Red. That Gojo Satoru not only fights best alone, but is actively hindered by company is precisely what Kenjaku exploits in Shibuya! Geto's request forces Gojo into an impossible dilemma: either devalue the lives around them just as Geto does, or beat Geto to death without using his powers. It's a demand that only makes sense if Geto sees Gojo as a weapon, not a person.

And don't forget that, seconds before, Geto responds to Gojo's "Killing all non-sorcerers to make a world of only sorcerers?! That's impossible!!" by assuming Gojo means it's logistically impossible: "You could do it... Satoru. You're trying to convince me that it's impossible when you yourself could do it. Are you the strongest because you're Gojo Satoru? Or are you Gojo Satoru because you're the strongest?"

Geto speaks as though Gojo couldn't possibly oppose his ideal for a reason like morality. When he says, "If I could be you... wouldn't my impossible ideal become possible?" Geto acknowledges a version of Gojo Satoru whose soul is tainted, reducing him to raw power and dehumanising him in the process. This is why I'm utterly unconvinced by the claim that he wanted to protect Gojo's goodness. I see it as yet another case of fans projecting onto Geto the image of the tragic, secretly selfless martyr they want him to be, as opposed to the supremacist cult leader he actually is.

I know that Geto claims that "This is the life I've chosen. All I can do now is give it all I've got." And in 0, he says, "It's just that in a world like this, I can't laugh from my heart at all." Geto (wants to) believe that he was pushed down this bloody path by the cruelty of the world, his hatred of non-sorcerers an inevitable conclusion.

But are those really the only options available to him? And while the narrative offers Geto sympathy—showing us first-hand the weight of his trauma and his isolation and despair, his genuine attachment to people like his friends and the members of his cult, whom he calls his "family"—it does not offer absolution.

Yuki's response to Geto's admission in ch. 77 that he's started to doubt whether non-sorcerers are worth fighting for are a perfect example of this: "Looking down on non-sorcerers... resisting that feeling... those are just possibilities you've thought of. Whatever your true feeling is... you still have to decide." She explicitly rejects his fatalistic framing, reminds him that he has agency. He just hasn't chosen to exercise it yet. When he massacres Mimiko and Nanako's village, Geto finally makes his choice.

The tragic irony of Geto lies specifically in the choices he made. The narrative presents us a number of people who suffered similarly, or worse, and chose differently—Yuuji is the most obvious foil to Geto, but there's also Yuuta, Maki, Mechamaru... See also this thread I wrote back in February about why Higuruma could be saved by Yuuji where Gojo could not save Geto, despite Higuruma and Geto ostensibly being similar in how they are radicalised by confrontation with systemic injustice and their own powerlessness to do anything about it.

Once again, I disagree that Gege discarding the original draft was "a missed opportunity to make Gojo and Geto's parting more heartbreaking". If taken as Geto acknowledging he might be wrong but wanting to protect Gojo anyway, it undermines not only his role as a villain (however sympathetic) who chose to become a mass murderer, but broader narrative themes about human agency, the choices we believe are available to us as a result of all we've experienced.

Geto wasn't trying to protect Gojo's morality; he was acknowledging Gojo's strength while accepting that his own warped ideology would mean his death if he couldn't make his bite match his bark. The final version of the line—"There's meaning in that too"—does a far better job at reinforcing this, and I'm glad Gege went with it.