That was a nice interruption, back to our regularly scheduled programming
I completely co-sign the first part of your post. I think some people may forget how stale both the big 2 were in 1995. Hogan going heel and aligning with the 2 former WWF stars really did make Nitro destination programming. Many things that were happening were creative and unique to the presentation and watching the ultimate do-gooder babyface Hogan shitting all over the rest of the world was an undeniable hook.
On his ring psychology, the transformation from Superman babyface to chickenshit heel was giving the WCW audience what they had desperately wanted since 1994: license to hate him. While Hulkamania definitely drew more eyeballs to WCW than the early 90's doldrums, I think everyone is in agreement that it wasn't what made WCW hardcore fans tick. The more they tried, the more the pushback. By completely removing everything redeemable about Hogan, it gave the WCW audience the license to completely hate him and generate nuclear heel heat that hadn't been seen in a long time before that.
A decent comparable would be Cactus Jack's heel run in 95 where he went full anti-hardcore, going for namby-pamby promos and insisting on working matches using mostly headlocks. Take away everything people liked about the original character to create something new.
You seem to be weaving in and out of kayfabe here. Is it the presentation of the character that you don't like or is it the perceived "backstage" stuff? If the answer is "both", that tells me that Hogan is a master of psychology for drawing such a vehement reaction. No one is motivated enough to just drop a "Ted Arcidi sucked" post with no context.
Hogan going heel instantly shuffled the deck and made rivalries with Flair, Savage and Piper fresh again. People were emotionally invested and borderline desperate to see Hogan get his ass kicked by the WCW icon Flair, his historical rival Savage (the Elizabeth intrigue added a nice touch too), and the returning Piper. Did anyone think Piper had any juice left after his commisioner run in WWF? But they were able to turn back the clock for a couple of months for Starrcade 96 and the build to it.
The fact that Hall and Nash "did the heavy lifting" was all part of the character. People were desperate to see Hogan get his ass kicked but he kept getting saved by his goons. It's like any action movie or video game, you wait until the end for the big boss to get destroyed.
In '97 Hogan was so hated that he drove the charismatically-challenged Lex Luger to his biggest babyface reactions in history, much more than the WWF's much larger attempt at it. Sting got more over than he has ever been by hanging out in the rafters and dropping down on the occasional Nitro to clean house simply because fans wanted to see WCW's last hope destroy Hogan. They let it simmer and did the biggest buyrate in company history. You can argue against the match itself and the fallout, but any attempt to discredit the effectiveness of the build and the massive business it did is an attempt to rewrite history.
Yes, the wheels fell off in 98. Everything has a shelf life. If they had managed the Wolfpac/Hollywood split differently and gave people the Hall/Nash vs Hogan/Savage rivalry that people wanted to see, maybe we would remember it differently. Maybe not. Ifs and buts and all that.
Again, it may not be your cup of tea or what you enjoy in pro wrestling, but Hogan didn't suck. He carried two companies on his back in consecutive decades. Once by having people love him and wanting to see him win, once by having people hate him and wanting to see him lose.