What I find odd is that the same fans who simply despise Walt often seem to have a weird kind of admiration for characters like Gus and Mike because they are more ~professional~ criminals . I like Gus's character a lot but as a villain, not as some kind of anti-hero. And I feel like a lot of fans see Mike especially as someone to admire and root for

The arrangement with Gus might have been a win for Mike, but not really for Walt who was going to be replaced when his three months were up, and not really for Jesse when Walt went against Gus and killed the dealers to save Jesse's life after Jesse was protesting at little kids being used as dealers. Yet there is such cheering in fandom when it's Mike being protective of Jesse and saying that Jesse has loyalty to the wrong guy and that it was Walt who screwed up everything with Gus. Even Jonathan Banks seems sincerely attached to Mike being a good guy and loving his granddaughter etc and has very firm views on Walt being a sociopath, but it's not like his characters loyalty to a man like Gus was particularly praiseworthy either, there just seems to be such a double standard with that hitman with a secret heart of gold type character