Only for games remaining... If he was not going to work either of the semifinals or the final, what difference does it make to let him go?
Further, if he gave out 18 yellow cards, so what? Maybe they were all deserved. But IMHO, in soccer in general there’s a lot of flopping going on in games. Sometimes there’s a penalty called where you cannot even see the contact. Other times there’s a flagrant foul and nothing is called.
There is a lot of flopping, and it makes me mad, but they embellish injuries in many sports, especially at the professional level. As you said, sometimes there’s a foul called, when the contact has been minor or even legal. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched a game where I agreed with every call a referee or official has made. Everyone differs. We each have our own opinions about the plays and what is right.
If I'm the referee, I would be extremely aggressive and hand out yellow cards to crack down on the "flopping". So you should see normal flow of game return to soccer, eventually. There's no reason to flop on the soccer field. But that's just me.