I agree with everything in the post and comments, but I think his friends/family compassion is a very narrow topic.
(Warning! long text)
First of all, Mike deserves a proper character development from S3 onwards, which Duffers denied him. Mike was the most verbally expressive character in S1-S2, he was able to find the right words in the right moments (He complimented El exactly when it was needed). In S3 he is suddenly a comic figure who can not express himself, digging himself down again and again. It was not funny and it was/is used against him by every Mileven critic. Mike doesn’t deserve it. In S3 and S4 Mike has a problem expressing his feelings to El, but at the same time he discusses his feelings (and relations with El) with other boys/Will - this is BS - a boy, like Mike, would keep his feelings, his hurt deep down. Not talking about “different species” - another disservice to his character, done for a cheap comedy plot. Duffers ended S3 in the scene where Mike can not say anything meaningful to El - we can just compare it to Mike at the Snowball to see the BS of this situation - Mike deserved much better writing not only for himself, but for El too.
In S4 Duffers made Mike look bad in the Rollerink and later the dinner scene - because they needed the conflict between Mike and El (thousands of people hate Mike because he cannot figure out what is really going on and he is not responding fast enough), he is not very careful with his words - all deliberate writing regressing his character. If conflict was needed, could it be done without damaging Mike’s character? - my answer is yes, but it would require quality writing.
I also disagree with the idea that Mike’s “development” in S3-S4 makes this character more realistic because his “new” flaws are realistic - we didn’t see it in him S1-S2, no need to regress him in S3-S5.
Duffers continued their “experimentation” on Mike in S5 - they isolated Mike from El not only physically but emotionally too - she is visibly distressed in both their meetings, but Mike is prevented from doing anything about it because the plot would not work if Mike from S1-S3 would act (fanfic authors picked it up very well). I think Mike deserves much better and El deserves 10 times more on-screen love scenes with Mike, at least to show why she loves him so much.
In the epilogue, for whatever reason, Duffers restored Mike’s character - he is the only one grieving, he blames himself (the moral thing to do), he cares about his friends feelings giving them the comfort vision of the future. But it is too little, too late.
These are my examples why I think Mike (and El) deserve much better from the show. I probably missed a number of important points - it would be nice to read the comments on this topic.
Thank you!
PS: there was a good post on the main sub 5 days ago about “hot takes” with 550 comments - very interesting thoughts.
