Well, first off, the escape pod explicitly stated to wait in the pod until Starfleet retrieved him. We also don’t know if there was a phaser in the pod or not. Kirk came out of the pod with a duffle bag that contained cold weather gear and a communicator. There may have been a phaser but Kirk might have chosen not to use it. Kirk saw it running at him and decided to run from it. While running, something even larger showed up and continued to chase Kirk. Also, I can’t say that I’d have chosen to shoot it. The first creature was huge but the second was enormous. There’s a chance the phaser would work, sure, but there’s also just as much of a chance that it would just piss it off. Considering the distance it was coming from, I’d also have chosen to haul ass to look for shelter.

But even then. your theory makes too heavy an assumption. Mainly that the escape pod can be landed either at the outpost, within close distance, or that atmospherics of the planet won’t impact the location of the drop pod. It was a cylindrical escape pod. In space it would have some ability to maneuver using thrusters but once it hit the atmosphere they would have become virtually worthless. Minor course correction maybe, mostly orientation of the pod, but not enough to hold to a perfect course.

Kirk was put in an escape pod that landed within a couple of hours walk from a Starfleet outpost. The pod had a homing beacon and a warning was played to Kirk to stay in the pod and wait for retrieval by Starfleet authorities. Kirk put himself in danger. To say he was left to die is pretty huge stretch of what happened.