Yes, I agree with both of you...that's what I was trying to express when I stated that I didn't see Angel's act as necessarily an act of love. It's not that he didn't love Connor, he does...but I think he loved his dream of Connor more. Which is true of love - often we are in love with the dream of the person not the person who stands before us. This I think is an echo of Liam/Angel's issues with his own father...Liam's father wanted Liam to be someone else, he drove Liam away because Liam did not live up to his ideal.
When Liam becomes a vampire - he echoes his father's mistakes as both Angel and Angelus...as Angelus he creates his vampire children in his own image (first Pell, then Spike), and he attempts to recreate himself in the Master's - to be better than the Master, nastier.

It's a theme Whedon is particularly fond of - since he plays with the same theme in Doctor Horrible and Dollhouse...in different ways.