I mean I guess, but we already saw him do that in the back to back Homecoming and Vietnam episodes, that saw Sam give up on saving his father and then his brother for the sake of others.
It would seem like ultimately this didn't matter, as it was meant to undo a large part of Al's character motivations by undoing the loss of his first true love thus preventing him from becoming the womanizer with commitment issues he became when the show started, but apparently didn't last as he was depicted as dying the same womazing party animal at the start of the new show.
Btw, new show is trash and doesn't deserve the name or Ernie Hudson. Both are wasted on what is even worse than the recent Macgyver reboot.