Hey you know what I think about a lot?
In the ATLA episode “The Storm”, Iroh tells the story about Zuko’s burning and banishment to the men on Zuko’s ship, and they’re all shocked by what they hear. One of them says he thought Zuko had been in a training accident. The fact that Lord Ozai burned and disowned his own son was never made public to them, Fire Nation soldiers, Zuko’s own men.
But in “Zuko Alone”, when Zuko reveals his identity, one of the townspeople points to him and says (in disgust) “Hey I’ve heard of you. His own father burned and disowned him.” A random Earth Kingdom man. In a small farming town in the middle of nowhere.
The details about Zuko’s banishment were known far and wide, but not inside the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation citizens and soldiers were probably fed some sanitized version of the story wherein Ozai simply had to banish his own treacherous, cowardly son.
Zuko was hated abroad as a member of Fire Nation royalty, and hated in his own nation as a brat and a traitor.
Iroh was probably the only soul on Earth who saw Zuko as the victim.