I'm really not surprised jimmy and kim started hating him. Especially when he went so far as to be 'nice' by putting in a good word with another firm to get him in there when he fucked him around with the guys brother. Its passive aggressive as fuck. and he had the audacity to be flabbergasted and ask why they hated him so much and were fucking with him before lalo showed up? Dude, stop and think about what you've been doing to these people for the last few years, especially the recent stuff
The thing about Howard, though, is that he's not related to Jimmy, so it's all just about business. His primary job is to keep HHM profitable, and it
should be. Otherwise they can't pay their employees and they go out of business. Jimmy is not a shitty lawyer (in terms of raw talent and inate intelligence), but he is
not reliable, and in that sense he would not be a true asset to the company. And yes, that's saying he's
more of a liability to HHM than Chuck, who has gone nuts. But, if Chuck comes back from that, he'll will return to form as a great lawyer who serves the firm well. In contrast, Jimmy will
always be working an angle.
But of course Jimmy and Kim hate Howard. Jimmy hates him because Howard is not a genuine person and is not extending a helping hand to Jimmy... but why
would he? Jimmy is a wannabe. He definitely doesn't need to be working at a high-powered firm just because his brother does. He has to earn it, and Jimmy honestly doesn't want to pay his dues. Kim hates Howard because she loves Jimmy and doesn't want to see him mistreated.
And the audience?
We dislike Howard because he's being, as you said, disingenuous and passive aggressive to our main character, someone we know well enough to understand and love. He's an underdog with aspirations we understand and admire. And he's not being treated fairly, being seen for his talents.
But this is an issue of perspective, not of good and evil. Howard is a smarmy jerk, but he's
paid to be a smarmy jerk. It would be grossly irresponsible of him to put the brother of one of his employees on the payroll and assign him crucial responsibilities just because of nepotism. (Though, it must be said, trying to steal the Sandpiper lawsuit from him was scummy. But business is often scummy, and you can equally blame Chuck for that, and the betrayal is a lot worse coming from Chuck.)
This is a microcosm of what makes Vince Gilligan's writer's room so impressive. They write a show chock full of characters, and
all of their perspectives make sense. In a show that well written, an occasional character who is truly evil (like Jack Welker and his people, who seem to be literal psychopaths, or Tuco, who is actually insane) will have far greater impact on the audience than a boring, clichéd evil supervillain. Because people like that exist in the real world, but they're rare. Almost everyone else is a largely rational actor.
This honestly reminds me a lot of the audience's hatred towards Skylar in Breaking Bad. The audience doesn't like her because she's standing opposed to Walter. But what Walter is doing is very illegal and extremely dangerous, so why wouldn't she be upset? We love Walter because we know him, understand his motivations, and we primarily follow him. That doesn't make Skylar wrong for feeling the way she feels. (Fucking Ted was really awful, though.)
But yeah, Howard was one of my favorite characters. Not a good guy, but not a bad guy, and he did not deserve what happened to him. The audience is misdirected, focusing on Kim, Nacho, and Chuck (because they're "new" characters who don't exist in BB for some reason), and we forget to consider Howard until it's too late (because it would be natural for him not to exist in BB). Masterful writing.
