I'm not sure the Nexus was all it was pumped up to be. I remember the line that Kirk, from his perspective, had just gotten there. Even though he beat Picard there by eighty years.
I think that was part of the "time has no meaning" gag, which on the surface I actually liked as a concept.
I looked at it as Guinan sending Picard to Kirk's early moments in the Nexus, so as to best influence his exit before the addictive elements got a hold of him and he was lost in it forever.
Maybe I'm just fanwanking it on that one, but that's how I interpreted that.