I don't really buy this argument. Each Senate is not really restrained by what the previous Senate did. Regardless of whether Reid did this or not, a future GOP Senate could exercise the "nuclear option" (or choose not to do so), regardless of whether Reid did it. That may have been his thinking as well - he may have thought the GOP would have eventually done it, so why not pull the trigger now?
Changing the rules mid-way through a session via a parliamentary interpretation is what just happened, which requires a majority vote to adopt. Otherwise, regular order would be necessary to change the rules.
Regardless of how we got there, these are the rules going forward, unless a future Senate votes to change the rules, following regular order, which allows for filibuster.
-PJ
The nuclear option was discussed in 2005 by the GOP but didn’t come to be.
https://www.google.com/#q=2005+senate+nuclear+option