No Kissing Rule?

Here's something that I never understood about our physical relationship - the following are the highlights:

He claimed that he wanted to "save" kissing on the lips until we got married - as in our first kiss would be at the altar... I was fine with this, agreed when he first suggested this, and thought, "wow, he's being really honorable, saving himself, romantic, etc." I liked the thought of this - not that I didn't want to kiss him or anything, but I thought that wow, it will be all the MORE special when we finally do get to kiss." That apparently was his train of thought as well...

However, I come to find out the following throughout the progression of our relationship:

-He told me that he had been at "different levels" in past relationships.

-He told me he wasn't a virgin - that he had been with 2 women in his past.

-Apparently his previous relationship before me included kissing.

-I dragged out of him at one point the fact that he had cheated on me by kissing/making out with a few girls at a party.

-Pornography was an issue.

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At one point, I asked him why he wanted to save kissing - his reply was, "Because kissing on the lips is different. It's very very special."

And yet, in our physical relationship, there were other inconsistencies - e.g. he claimed that with our physical part of our relationship that he wanted to stick with holding hands and cuddling, and our first time we spent together he wanted to snuggle with me on the floor, with legs entwined, he made comments on how he wanted to kiss me so bad...

He was comfortable with kissing and making out with me in other ways - neck, chin, nose, etc. etc.- basically he bent or furthered the boundaries we had both established in different ways... (And yes, I wasn't the greatest at keeping the boundaries or reminding him - I craved the attention and physical affection.)

And yet, in the midst of all this adhering to the rule of no lip kissing, he still claimed he wanted to kiss me "so bad." There were other graphic/inappropriate comments by him, and a lot of flattery by him describing in detail what he found attractive about me.

There was one time where he came down to visit me, (we had a long distance relationship) his intent was on proposing to me during this visit, and he made a comment like, "I was thinking, if we want to kiss we can - we could talk about it more." At some point in the visit I just basically told him that I think it was still something we should save - he agreed.

Honestly, recalling some of this, I am just baffled? Why would have no kissing been important at this point in his life, when clearly he had been around the block a time or 2? Was it just him trying to portray a Mr. Nice Boy image?

Any thoughts or insight, or has anyone else experienced something similar?