Yeah, you really don't understand Kaido at all. He wanted to just die at the moment of his introduction, he was trying to die with everything he got, using different tactics and methods, but he couldn't.
So now he's going to go for his last resort, he wants to takeover Wano so he can have a huge army composed of not only his beast pirates but also the samurais of Wano, then he wants to find the One Piece and become the PK because he wants to start the biggest war there ever was, he wants to become the target of every strong person out there, because he will possess the most valuable treasure in the world, the One Piece. So he wants to start this war, against the Governament and any other person that wants the One Piece for themselves, because he wants to have a glorious death like Roger and Whitebeard and complete his journey, just like those two great people once did. That's the only way he sees himself dying.
But when he sees people that seem a bit strong, he gives them the benefit of the doubt, first he goes into Dragon form and see if they can deal with his tankiness and AoE attacks in that form, then he goes into Human form and sees if they can handle his speed and strenght, if you can deal with both of these then he's going to be absolutely hyped and go into hybrid form as happy as he can, dude loves fighting strong people, so he tries to find potential in them instead of going all out.
He doesn't want to speedblitz every enemy, he wants them to be strong enough to deal with him, because he wants a strong motherfucker out there to kill him.