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Who was Ravana? Ravana was the one who confiscated Sita Devi, the lovable wife of Sri Rama. Even when Sri Rama faced Ravana, He turned him back saying ‘Indru POi NALai Vaa’ (Go back and return tomorrow’). Why did he do so? An ocean of infinite compassion that He was, Sri Rama waited to see if Ravana surrendered to Him, or at least befriended Him, so that He could let go of Ravana. How can such an ocean of mercy kill Vali from the hiding?
Sri Rama neither avowed to Himself (‘sankalpa’) nor promised anyone that He would kill Ravana. However, in the case of Vali, He had promised Sugriva that He would slay Vali. Thus, when the result was pre-decided, had Sri Rama waged a battle with Vali, Vali would have brought a huge ‘vanara sena’ (army of monkeys), and they would be killed in the battle for no fault or reason. Out of sheer compassion for those monkeys, Sri Rama decided that He would kill Vali from the hiding, very well aware that He would be blamed for doing so, for centuries and centuries to go.
There is another connotation to it too:
Sri Rama was an avatar of Maha Vishnu, the supreme Lord. Hanuman was the Guru of Sugriva. It is the Guru who shows the Lord to the disciple and so did Hanuman bring Sri Rama unto Sugriva. Not only that; through God, the Guru fulfils the disciple’s wish.
Here Valmiki underlines a very important fact – “The Lord will do anything to keep up the word of the Guru, unmindful of the consequences”. That was the reason Sri Rama killed Vali from behind the tree.
Another interesting fact is being subtly painted by Valmiki here: Sugriva does not show as much love, obedience, devotion and respect to Sri Rama as Hanuman did. This shows that, these factors are more important for the Guru than for the disciple himself, and that, the Lord will keep up Guru’s words, even if the devotee does not confide in Him completely.
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