Maybe it wasn't, but he thought it was his choice to believe in what he wanted to. He believed that there was such an attainable goal as 'Hero', but he thought the current ones were doing it wrong.
They relied to heavily on interviews with the public and blind adoration, and lacked actual heroic qualities.
These… 'Pro Heroes', who pretended to be nice and good and heroic, were nothing but shams trying to make a quick buck.
The way the hero industry was right now, with these fakes caring more about being actors in a drawn out movie than saving people, who disliked actually saving people who wouldn't bring them more fame, heroes like Endeavor, the renowned #2 hero who had killed his mother in an attempt to stop a 'villain', a two bit criminal who had stolen to survive, and called her a casualty.
As if this were some war where innocents were displaced instead of children in fancy spandex suits playing hero.
There were some good heroes, though. Underground ones like Erasure Head and ones who ran charities like Present Mic, ones who saved the innocents over catching the bad guy like Ingenium. Ones who actually cared, like All Might.
Oh, wait.
All Might didn't care.
He supposed he had to remember that.
After all, it was All Might, not some two bit villain or a 'hero', who had told him to give up.
"It's nice to dream, but you need to be realistic. Being a hero without a Quirk could get you killed."
He knew that.
Why did everyone assume he didn't?
He wanted to be a hero in a different way than most others, he supposed. He wanted to be a more 'underground' type hero, working in a hero organization to get information to help save more lives.
An informant, of sorts.
He got that wish, in a way.
He was an informant, just for the 'wrong' side.
The villains.