It is totally illogical for God to display Himself by living a full life as a human being. In the Mahabharatta, He lived like God, not like a human being.
In the Ramayana, there is no explicit consultation between Ram and God so Rama was just a human being, a very divine one at that. The dharma of a purushottam is different from the dharma that is considered to be sanatan dharma. You have alluded to that. So I cannot regard Rama to be Narayana/MahaVishnu/Supreme Brahman. I do not know if we should even consider Rama to be an avatar because an avatar is perennially in contact with God and consulting him.
To understand this fully, perhaps you can answer me one simple question: would you not say that Mahatma Gandhi was also a purushottam and equal in his dharma to what we know about Rama life in the Ramayana?
From what i know by the grace of our acharya Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, If you go by strict vaidika meaning, purushottama is a strong term
Puru in Sanksrit derives from root puru sethi, puram is body , the one who resides in the shareera/body is purusha, so even insects can be called purushas. Purushottama is uttama purusha. Uttama Purusha is only one...For this we need to know what kind of Purushas exist, I don't know this but copying from/ as told by Sri Krushna in BhagawadGita, Purushottama prapti yogam chapter, he says he is only Purushottama.
Purushas are divided into
1. Uttha Purushas( the ones who does not believe in paramaatma as such and waste their entire lives on materialistic things)
2. Utthh Purushas( the ones who want to reach eternal abode of god and do his service and strive for that, these are also called mumukshus)
3. Uttara Purushas ( These dont have karmic bondage at all and live in eternal company with god like Garuda, Anantha, Vishwaksena , called as nithya suris)
4. Uttama Purusha ( Sri Krushna says he alone is Uttama Purusha/Purushottama)
avatar is also a term that says, that which came directly without any change (from avataranam) ,,,,,,Sri Krushna is born and so is Sri Rama but the qualities like soulabhyam, sauseelyam, paratvam of nArayaNa tattwam remains whatever form it assumes...I referred to nArayaNa by 'It' because nArayaNa does not refer to a male/female/napunsuka, it is actually a tattwam
and regarding Gandhi is just a jiva full of sins as we are and perhaps is more sinner than we are and is in the cycle of birth and death, many call him a british stooge for dragging bharat army into world war I for which it has no part and was responsible for millions of indian deaths. would not go far on this.