If I'm improperly accused of sexual assault (totally innocent) I'll hear that case out instead of hiding in my man cave at a foreign embassy while still making contact with questionable foreign intelligence figures.

What you fail to realize is that for Assange, it would be a better outcome to go to trial and be judged guilty than innocent. If guilty he ends up in a Swedish prison, if innocent he gets extradited and gets the death penalty in the US. So his refusal to go says the opposite of what you think it does about what he considers of his chances to be judged guilty.

Ok, but what if you get accused of sexual assault, and you know that if you go into custody in that foreign country, you'll probably never go to trial, because you'll immediately be extradited to the US for trumped up espionage charges and face the death penalty? You still going to go hear that case out?

>I'll hear that case out instead of hiding in my man cave at a foreign embassy

You'd only do that if you were stupid enough to not already understand that the accusation was setup, with a little US pressure into an anyways willing subordinate government (Sweden), to get you to a circus trial and then extradition.

Fortunately Assange was not that naive.