Matt is my fav character. I think he is very cute.
I fell in love with him instantly in my first playthrought. If you do everything he says, which I did, he doesn't bring blackmail at all and comments about him by you are somewhat different (you don't go to him like "you make me do this". You can make it somewhat consensual, I guess, if you aren't scared by him).
And every patch they are making him more cute, imo. Hurts me to skip him to get anything else done.
I would agree he has some difficult place finding his public. I guess, in average players, you need or a male player that can get in his POV and don't get disgusted by him or a female player that is into mean bad boys (me).
Main problem I can say with the last thing I mentioned is that I find him pathetic (in a good way). If he made me feel that he is pure evil I would be disgusted, I am sure, but I personally think he is... like, mean (not evil) in a cute way?
IDK, is hard to explain it how it makes me feel because it will look very foreing to you guys, but that's my opinion in case you wanted a different one. I doubt everyone hates this character. And I doubt everyone sees him as a pure villain. I do not think he is just a pure villian despite being in the villian position most of the time. I think he is very interesting.
But that's only my opinion.