He was definitely on the verge of being enraged imo. He was hardly able to control himself and Goku even had to tell him to calm down. And yeah, I'd agree with this assessment. Toriyama later makes a point of having Gohan say that he can't get angry like "back then" and then proceeds to draw Gohan as a Super Saiyan. And he clearly wasn't angered while fighting Dabura initially. I think after his rage subsided he lacked the anger to turn SSJ2 at will due to his lack of training.I think that if Dabura broke Piccolo's and Kuririn's statue to smithereens and he was informed they then could never come back, he'd cut loose.
I don't know tho. Was he mad at the Budokai? Was that what allowed him to go SSJ2? That SSJ2 was deemed as weak by Vegeta, who later stated he wouldn't be sure of his superiority over Gohan if Gohan became enraged. I think I'd argue that anger Gohan felt wasn't maximised as Spopovitch took Videl out of bounds and she was healed later on... So perhaps Gohan got access to SSJ2 but he couldn't tap into more power, increasing his overall level, as his anger was somewhat softened by then and it merely gave him momentary access to SSJ2. Idk.
When Goku alludes Gohan to being angry and cutting loose, he remembers him of the time he battled Cell, not even mentioning what he did minutes earlier at the Budokai. Even Gohan thinks of that Cell's moment. So I think he at the Budokai was midway there, but not quite there, and his anger just sharpened his instinct to become SSj2 but didn't serve as a real catalyst for recovering his power, like totally cutting loose would, which was also a prospect more respected by Vegeta in the ship. I think Gohan would recover his power loss and be the same as the CGs were him to be enraged. Goku saying he'd be stronger than anyone could be seen more as a motivator but Vegeta questioning how things and his superiority would be with a Gohan like that indicates it could possibly be above pre Majin Vegeta's powers.He was definitely on the verge of being enraged imo. He was hardly able to control himself and Goku even had to tell him to calm down. And yeah, I'd agree with this assessment. Toriyama later makes a point of having Gohan say that he can't get angry like "back then" and then proceeds to draw Gohan as a Super Saiyan. And he clearly wasn't angered while fighting Dabura initially. I think after his rage subsided he lacked the anger to turn SSJ2 at will due to his lack of training.
I still find it hard to believe that he could surpass Goku/Vegeta if he became enraged enough. Cell Games Gohan was already peak rage and we saw how powerful he was. A much weaker Gohan surpassing that level doesn't make much sense.