True - but all of those choices were forced upon him to some degree - the invasion of Transalpine Gaul probably the least so, but the threats to prosecute him for acts which the Senate had already voted public thanksgiving feasts for were the main reason for his insisting on running again. Most of the things he asked for were not without precedent - goodness knows they had made so many exceptions to the rules for Pompeius Magnus already, including letting him serve as "Consul Without a Colleague." Caesar only asked the Senate extend the same exemptions to him that Pompey had already been given.
By the time the extended dictatorship was voted on, the Republic was so shattered by civil war that all the old norms were thrown out. I think Caesar was a reformer, but I don't think his end goal was something like the principate that eventually emerged. Then again, my concept of him may well be inaccurate. I think we all, to some extent, see historical figures as we wish them to be as much as we see them as they were.