You are mistaken.
Having grown up next to an air force base and having seen crashes every few years, I was under the impression the pilot was obligated to stay with the plane til the end if he was over a populated area.
If the plane is unresponsive then that’s suicide.
Define "end".
Apparently both engines had failed. The F18 has the glide capabilities of a rock and when you lose thrust, you lose all control. Once the plane picks out it's own landing spot, it's time to bail. He could have played with the controls for a few more seconds, but that plane still would have landed exactly where it did.
Here's another shocker for you - in the Navy the captain really isn't required to go down with his ship.
The pilot is expected to take all possible steps to avoid civilian injuries but it isn't a suicide billet.
Echoing bboops point — it depends on the nature of the malfunction. Modern jets use fly-by-wire technology. If their flight control computers cut-out (as would be the case with a general power failure) these aircraft literally stop flying. Staying in the aircraft under that kind of emergency just increases the death toll by 1.
I had an A4 Skyhawk crash a couple blocks from my house near Willow Grove NAS (some 22 years ago). That is a much earlier generation aircraft that was suffering a major hydraulic leak. The pilot tried to nurse it back to base. When he realized he’d come up about a mile short of the runway he lined it up on a secondary street & punched out just before bellying in. He survived with some back & neck injuries due to the ejection. Luckily only some parked cars were destroyed by the fireball. Nobody else was injured.
Do you think this pilot didn't?
You are mistaken.