He broke up with me, why won't be stop texting

My ex and I met through friends online last may. Getting to know eachother seemed very fluid and easy. We were from different countries so during covid it was a bit hard but we made it work seeing eachother every couple months.

We would spend more than a week together non stop which can be difficult for a long term relationship so for our short relationship we ran into small arguments and personality clashes.

I was always honest about my baggage with previous relationships and thrived for communication and transparency as much as I could although it posed to be difficult as he was more of a logical thinker and j was a feeler.

As months went on we would find ourselves in discussion about how to treat one another and sometimes it seemed like he did not want to put the work in to understand my side and how I was feeling.

During the entire time of our relationship my mom contracted covid and was in the hospital.

She ended up passing away in November and I went to see him as the holidays were going to be extra hard. We ended up getting covid and had to quarantine for the time I was there. We ended up getting in a bunch of arguments mainly because we thought the way the other treated people was too different.

I ended up coming home and he started to ignore me until I brought up he was acting different. He ended it saying we were too different and not compatible.

I was crushed at the time but I did notice small signs as well but with grieving my mom Im nkt sure j was mentally able to really give as much energy as I wanted.

He wanted to stay friends and for me that was too hard.

During the next month's he told me he would give me space but still texted me small things that reminded him of me a d asked how I was doing. Eventually I just couldn't handle it so I removed him from all social media and was good for months.

He texted me tonight saying how something else reminded him of me and hopes I'm ok

The question I'm asking is why does be keep contacting me? Clearly he said we werent compatible and when j ask he says he just wants to be friends even though I told him I needed space.

Should I fully cut him off or try to develop a friendship?