that's not even what "Varric was planned to be unlikeable" was about, the whole point of "Varric was unlikeable" was the intention in the FIRST DRAFT, trust me they didn't write Varric's centrism with the impression it'll make him unlikeable, they likely made him a centrist specifically so you can always have a friendship with him regardless of your political choices in da2, they didn't think it'd make him unlikeable.
And in da2 and DAI it was always clear Varric was ill-equiped to talk about politics, people liked him for how he was loyal to Hawke in spite of everything. If people go "i like him so i support their politics" or "i like him so it must means their politics are good" it's their problem
the issue you want to address, is that VG weaponized the fact people cared for Varric to force their centrist, pro statusquo storyline, by having his politics be the moral core of the game, maybe under the assumptions the fans wanted to see it.
That's a problem about the devs being shitty and bad writing, not a problem on the fans being wrong for liking a character who's "a bad person with bad politics".
