I think that your suggestion sums him up very well. When the Jacobins were in the ascendancy, he was a radical Jacobin, connected to the Paris "Mountain" through Augustin Robespierre, when they fell, he became a moderate, connected to the Directory through Paul Barras, then, when the Directory was losing popularity, his brother, Lucien, convinced him that a coup would be successful. Buonaparte, having established the Consulate after Brumaire, became First Consul, and effectively ended the Revolution "On the principles upon which it began", whatever that meant. He then proclaimed himself Emperor, establishing a form of hereditary monarchy. Thus he went from being an extreme radical republican to being an absolute monarchist in about 15 years.