Gohan should've gotten his universes expelled at this point

Gohan might be a moral character, but he isn’t perfect. Both of them being hypocritical at times shows despite mostly being the moral center doesn’t mean they are flawless. Both Gohans having biases, faults, but still mostly a good person is intended. It is a way to avoid the common criticism of pure hearted characters are all too good and unrealistic that people toss around. The situation with U13 Saiyans is absolutely true in that U18 Pan can back out at any time and Gohan was the aggressor. I don’t think it is meant to be shown as this is morally superior move to make on Gohan’s part. I think it is meant to be a worried father and past victim of trauma overcoming it. After just seeing U16 Pan brutally murdered as a father it makes sense for Gohan to be afraid for her. I think the scene is meant to show Gohan as a caring father above all else. He isn’t afraid to break the rules for Pan. It is certainly not a completely moral move, but a motive people can understand.

It also makes him a good foil for his own father. Goku threw Gohan against Cell without getting his input or preparing Gohan for the task during the following days. Goku went as far to give Cell a senzu to make the fight fair. Gohan went a different approach of ensuring Pan’s opponent hold off on killing her. He wants Pan to experience how tough life and death battles are since she has lived in an era of peace, while not having her quit immediately in order to avoid her losing her nerve in case she faces a life and death fight where her grandpa or dad aren’t around to help her and Pan will need to fight on her own with no safety net. If we look at Gohan’s actions from that lens it gives his and Goku’s characters are interesting foil. Goku gave Gohan too much free rein on the belief his son shared his values and strong faith Gohan could handle Cell until Piccolo pointed out Gohan doesn’t. Whereas Gohan is trying to work behind the scenes to make Pan’s fight isn’t as dangerous out of fear she is not ready. Instead of possibly doing the mature thing of telling Pan to quit because it is not a fight she is ready for and talking her through her issues. He gives her the illusion she is in a life and death battle so Pan can still experience it, give her confidence, etc. Two different approaches from Goku and Gohan that both have merit to them, but flawed.

I agree Gohan was strong arming the U13 Saiyans as both an intimidation tactic and to sell them on Old Kai’s power. I’m also think Gohan knew Old Kai would likely reject to help the U13 Saiyans. U18 Gohan went in there as a trickster of enticing the Saiyans to get what he wants without them getting they want. He likely sees them getting stronger harmful to U13’s own universe. I think Gohan justifies that in his head as to not vouch or help them get even stronger. The Majin Revolt is similar. U16 Gohan is going to be more forgiving of his sister who was being controlled over U13 Nappa or Cell. It shows Gohan has biases. “Nappa is genocidal monster even without being controlled, so it is fine if I attack him for attacking my wife.”

Let’s be honest both Gohans hate Cell. The Majin Revolt gave them even more reasons to hate him. Cell’s plan wasn’t truly pragmatic one. On paper it looks good because he is secretly preparing or setting the board up to face Majin Bra. Cell is trying his hand at being a chess master. That is fine until you sit there and realize it means Cell knew Babidi was trying to take control of Bra the whole time. He knows U16 Bra is a much stronger than all of them. The more pragmatic move would have been to do what U18 Gohan did and go after and kill Babidi before Bra entered the picture to avoid fighting her altogether. That is not what Cell did.

Instead Cell used this as an opportunity to get his fight with Gohan like he wanted, while getting a free power up. In other words Cell was treating this all like a game. Cell could get everything he wanted out of it rather than stopping the threat at all cost. Cell wasted precious time fighting U16 Gohan to get the long awaited fight from him. Imagine if he had told Gohan he was faking being under control, teleported him to where Babidi was, and they killed him as soon as possible. Babidi would be dead before Bra entered the fight and they would all be safe. Cell had to prove to his ego he was superior and needed to beat U16 Gohan first, because he is baffled how there is a universe where Gohan won against him even after Cell received his zenkai boost from surviving his self destruct. Of course he would take out Bra using his tactics and chess pieces to prove his superiority to her as well. That is probably why Cell attacked Bra in the cover of Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannons to try to sound or kill her, rather than kill Babidi while he still had the element of surprise.

Once Bra proves too strong Cell realizes it is better to go for Babidi, but by that point he lost the element of surprise and Bra was able to easily counter any attack Cell could make on Babidi. I’m sure with both Gohans anger at Cell is for using them, killing their wives, and at the end of the day making things harder than it needed to be by keeping withholding valuable information (Babidi was turning U16 Bra into a Majin), and wasting their time (pretending to be on Babidi’s side, so U16 Gohan will fight him over prioritizing kill Babidi the same way U18 did). All Cell’s actions showed was that he hadn’t changed or grown at all from the monster both Gohans knew in their universes. The Bra situation was mishandled from a writing stand point, but she still expressed remorse. Cell doesn’t even do that. He doesn’t have a moment of realization of how his paying games to get maximum enjoyment screwed his efforts of stopping Babidi and Bra. Both Gohans threatening him to not go near either of their families was a much needed reality check for Cell IMO who still functioning on that I can do whatever I want mindset, because the whole universe exist to bring me entertainment.

Extending that to Cell Juniors also makes sense IMO. Regardless of how cute Juniors act we have to remember they do whatever Cell tells them to do. This time the Juniors helped because Cell wanted them to help out Gohan because he needed both Gohans help against Bra. Next time Cell might order them to kill Gohan’s family. If Cell orders it the Juniors will carry it out without question. Both Gohans treating the Cell Juniors as extensions of Cell makes sense to their characters and I don’t really blame them. We saw them hold his families hostage to keep them in place. It is not like Gohan’s hostility has no basis to it. It would be cool to see either Gohan try to coax the Juniors to being their own beings and get them to see Cell doesn’t care for them. I don’t expect Gohan to be that character. Gohan tried to get Cell to stop being a monster in his universe and what he got for it was Cell trying to torture him so Gohan would unleash his true power and get a fight out of it. Juniors will be his little toddies who carry out his will and hurt others without any questions asked. Gohan has written them off. Goku is a much better character to help the Cell Juniors out or to let things go.

All in all I have no real problem with either Gohan’s actions and think while it does make him less noble than he appears that these are existing character flaws. It helps set Gohan apart from his dad or Vegeta. Gohan is less trusting and forgiving as his Goku is, but he is forgiving of his loved ones and has strong biases for past enemies. Unlike Vegeta we see Gohan isn’t as willing to let Pan do her own thing yet. Vegeta is the one who wants Pan to get more experience and holds Gohan back from helping Videl because he thinks it is a good chance to let Pan grow a little. Gohan likes to be that safety net for her as long as he can. I fully agree with your assessment Gohan is hypocritical at times and also this my favorite version of Gohan post Buu arc. This allows Gohan’s character growth to stick. My only criticism is that I don’t fully agree once Old Kai’s magic awakened Gohan’s full potential that it means Gohan’s power will never decline due to lack of training. Personally I think a stronger message would be Gohan kept up with his training just enough to stay in shape, but nowhere near as much as Goku and Vegeta. It shows Gohan learned to be prepared just in case a new threat emerges, but stops him from being Goku 2.0 fans sometimes want him to be.