Rick going from We Rule to We Drool and just being a complete sellout pussy is just terrible. Where's the character in that? He's just doing things now to fit into the story. It's like Glenn's magical ability to not die (welp, until he did anyway).
Eh. For now, he's at a loss and he's doing the only thing he can think of right now. He's not going to come up with a plan in just a few nights and he's in bottom of the bucket right now, mostly because it's the fear of losing people do to incompetence.
After he swims around the bottom of the bucket for awhile, he'll resort to psycho mode. Don't know what you want him to do when Negan has an effective army compared to ricks 20+ people. He watched two of his own get the most horrifying death imaginable. His kids are on the line. He had a couple opportunities to swing the bat and knock Negan's head right off the stem. He wanted to so bad, but what would that have done. Alexandria would have been done for. Rick's doing what he has to for now.
Goodness, let the rebellion creep in him a bit first. There's plenty of character in Rick's restraint. Up until now, he was the strongest there was or so he believed. Now he is clearly outnumbered and out powered.