I think that the importance of the Veins of Gold chapter was in that it showed that Rand would no longer be the same after the realisation that he's doing it for love, right?

Bear in mind that his thought processes in deciding what course of action to take were always focussed on "having to do it" and so now that he's got another motive, surely he'll consider that?

I took that last chapter to show that Rand had gone to the extremes, realised that he can't shut himself off from emotions, and that going forward he will be a more reasonable person - he was at the edge and now he's stepped back.