I think this is an unfair characterisation of how Ding played. The issue wasn't lack of ambition, but lack of confidence leading to misevaluation. Judging from the long thinks and how he's played in recent years, it's clear he doesn't fully trust his calculation. But I think he deserves credit for his ambition, actually. If he really wanted to play for draws he wouldn't be playing the French or the English. He'd be aiming for e4 e5 with an early queen trade. He mostly chose interesting openings with a lot of fight in them, often got an advantage, and simply misplayed by underestimating his position. Classic sign of a player with confidence issues.
I watched the press conferences, and I agree that misevaluation was a big part of the problem. But even in game 6 for example, there is no way he could think he was not better after black refused the queen trade, and he just kept pressing for that trade. So yes, call that lack of confidence - but its still not what I want to see in the world champion.
His long thinks is thought to be due to the fact that he simply hasn't been preparing. He stated he prepared for about 3 weeks for the championship match which was considered insanely low amount of time. But Caruana has stated he would be amazed if he even preped that long based on his games, and he always just looked like he was winging it every game.
