Pretty much, yeah. Walt's never manufactured or fabricated a problem to justify his actions. He's always been pretty good about assessing the problem, and understanding it. The "lie" comes during his solutions. When people point to the "big lie" of the show "I'm doing this for my family", it's true, that was a lie--but the problem Walter assessed was true. He didn't "make up" his cancer or his financial crisis in order to justify his actions, he sat down and realized he needed precisely X amount of money if he didn't want his family destitute.
The lies came in how he went aboutdealingwith that problem, or, as I said at the start of this debate, his actions. Chaos is right, he didn'tneedto cook Meth, there were other ways out (Like swallowing his pride and working at Gray Matter)--but a series of events had dug into Walt's ego and pushed him to say this was the "only" solution. But it wasn't. Or in your example--Walt understood Jesse was a screw up. He knew it was a very real problem. His reaction to it? That was a delusion based on something he wanted. He kept assuming he could save Jesse, or at least "educate him" and mold him into something more. He couldn't, in the end, but that doesn't mean he didn't understand Jesse was a fuck up--he did. (And his plans, and the lengths he went to in order to manipulate Jesse, show that.)
Which, going back to Gray Matter--we've never seen Walt just "make up" a problem. The problems are always real. It's Walt's reactions that distorted by his ego. Given what we've seen in the series, it really doesn't hold water that Walt would just "make up" an affair or a coup in order to justify his rage. More than likely something along those linesactuallyhappened, and Walt's reaction was completely disproportionate to the problem. (Again: My theory, Gretchen's family said some off color remark about the company and not supporting it because Walt was a peon and Walt freaked out, left the company and Gretchen.)
