I don’t believe he thinks that abstractly. Maybe his advisors will tell him as such and he’ll do it but I have my doubts.

He wants his followers to love and worship him. Not operate in a, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” sort of way. He just wants the, “you scratch my back” part.

By pardoning them he’s sending a message that he’ll do something for them for free. That’s not how Trump operates. He’s going to want something immediately in return; power or money or both. The Jan 6th insurrectionists don’t have much of either.