I don't think he run away from his social life because of fear or discourage to achieve something. IMO he did it cause he felt that a modern society is not a place for him. Can you blame him?
All he wanted was pure freedom, a place away from stress, stereotypes, careers and money. I don't know if he really loved nature, but a wild forest is the only place of freedom left in our world, so by default he chose this place.
Also the idea of going unprepared in a place like this and eventually die from this is one of the movie's main points, how humans are lost any contact with true nature and it's impossible for them to return in a pure natural way of living.
Now I don't think either that he died smarter or something, but his purpose was not to discover himself or learn something, but to live in total freedom. Also choosing a life like this he knew that he will live alone without any friends or love, but that was a sacrifice that every human has to made to live in total freedom IMO.