In a way, yes. People forget that this is a three way negotiation, the UK, the E27 and their representative. Barnier’s job is to fulfill the mandate the E27 give him, but also sell the E27 on what they need to compromise on to get a deal. Fish being the most obvious one where the coastal states were being very hardline and have now ‘softened’.
Barnier stated that the Political Declaration should be the basis of the future deal because that is what the PD was for and both sides agreed to it as part of the WA.
Where Barnier/EU hobbled themselves a bit with the PD was to be dismissive about it, non binding ‘window dressing’, but then get evangelical about it when it was much more to his liking.