I didn't even like him in high school that much tbh lol. I hated his constant digs at Angel and the way he felt entitled to Buffy's romantic attention because he was her friend. He is the definition of nice guy to me, he presented himself as Buffy's friend, and then never got over it when she took him at face value and dared to treat him as just that while she 'made time' with bad boys, as Xander saw it

At least it felt like he had a purpose in seasons 1-3 though, he was such an afterthought most of the time after that and you could tell the writers were really struggling to integrate him into the story a lot of the time.