Itachi did what was the lesser of two evils, much more bloodshed would have arisen from the coup, on both sides and would have ended up with Konoha in ruin so I respect him for it.
sure he should have killed them makes for a better story imo also made saskue what he is today no slaughter no saskue ....besides you cant spell slaughter with out laughter
I don't know how he could stop his emotions like that. Sai tried to do it but became became all sentimental when Naruto asked about his brother. I think that it was because of Root.
I don't agree with it but he had two extremely bad choices he just had to choose which one was worse.
If he had told sasuke then itachi's true plans would have failed cuz itachi wanted sasuke to hate him. Itachi wanted sasuke to become the hero who avenged his clan and the man who killed Konoha's traitor. If it weren't for Tobi, Itachi's plans would have succeeded, he never intended for sasuke to want to crush Konoha.