Seeing the last episode (SPOILERS), it arguably makes things worse not taking fauxRhodey out, since he’s able to convince the President to launch nukes and the world is seconds away from nuclear destruction. I guess it makes for raised stakes and all that, but taking out fauxRhodey earlier on would’ve solved a lot of problems right there. It also could’ve led to an actual confrontation between Fury and Gravik, assuming Fury actually went there to Russia, as opposed to whatever we got.