It is my interpretation that Jesus only claimed to be love, which is essentially claiming that you are God who also is love and the truth.
And I think that Pilate understood that Jesus only claimed to be love, which has nothing to do with the aristocratic title king.
But to the Jewish biblical scholars Jesus' claim was the same as Jesus claiming to be God, because they are only obsessed with (political) power.
Pilate called Jesus a fool (or crazy) because Jesus would not lie, because Jesus actually believed to be love; if your action reflects your intention (your thought) than you are your thought. What Jesus actually does is take out the ego between the thought love and the deed of love; to not only ACT lovingly but BE love.
In short Jesus did not claimed to be God only love, but since the Pharisees accused him of blasphemy for claiming to be God, Jesus did not deny the title of king of the Jews, because Jesus believes that God is king of the Jews so love should be your king.
I also believe that Jesus sees himself as a man of God, the same way Martin Luther King JR sees himself as a man of God, or Ghandi sees himself as a man of God, or the 14th Dalai Lama sees himself as a man of God. They all realise that their ideal, their faith, is far more important than their own individual ego so all are willing to sacrifice themselves for their ideal/faith.
Pilate found Jesus innocent, but was too much of a coward to go against the masses (
which generally is the way of democracy).