He didn't explicitly answer your question, but cmon, what kind of question was that.
If I was in his place and read that, I'd think you were low-key dissing me and not looking to hear back on that rhetorical question.
I really enjoyed the way he handled your question here:
Hi Gabby! I know you don't really have anything to say to me and there's probably little I can do to change your perception that I wasn't playing the whole time, so I'm not going to go on to defend my game as I feel like I've done that and will probably maybe continue to do that while answering other questions. I don't necessarily find your question to be phrased in the most positive way, so I'm not sure if it's rhetorical or maybe you just want me to talk about myself and my self image.
No shade to you, I'm just disagreeing rn.