Yeah. The same thing is at play in the "If I could bind this feeling to me" scene — as he keeps showing through the episodes, he intuitively approaches everything as a potential tool in the great workshop that is Arda, so the moment he runs into a new emotion, he's trying to sort out how to use it to greatest effect. There isn't any ill-intent attached in the moment, either; it's just how he runs by default. Mairon's moral compass basically has "Productive and efficient" in place of Good and "Wasteful and disorderly" in place of Evil.

Which is how you have him throwing himself at the first forge he crosses — because he can be productive and efficient there. It's the best possible use of himself in the "Numenor" workshop.