Yeah, that's a good point. I guess I'd say what bothered me about it was maybe less that he's "bad" (as you say it's not the point) and more that there was a very specific stereotype of queer desire that was entangled with the most, well, sordid parts of the novel, so it felt like the queerness was treated as being part of the sordidness. It would have bothered me less if she'd framed it differently I think.