He's also brimming with redemptive qualities and as you pointed out, he's essentially a Chuck creation. Jimmy continually reacts and has to claw and scratch in response to the continued, long term efforts of Chuck to undermine him.

Further, a large portion of Jimmy's underhandedness comes in the form of an attempt to help someone he cares about and when it comes down to it he will hurt himself rather than hurt Kim or Chuck.

In fact there's a strong argument that Jimmy turns out to be a reasonably upstanding lawyer with Chuck's support.

Jimmy, if anything, is a study on the push-pull of the old nature/nurture debate. Conversely, Chuck is a study in ice cold sociopathy.

>Jimmy was far more devious since he drug up Chuck's ex-wife
>to further embarrass him that much more devastatingly.

More devious, yes, but by necessity. Chuck has backed him into a corner. You can't blame the kid being bullied for kicking his bully in the nuts after allowing said bully to kick his ass for years on end without reprisal.

>I guess I am the lone contrarian here because I won't view
>Chuck solely as the evil antagonist folks view him; Jimmy did
>in fact turn into the scumbag lawyer he is imagining in his
>efforts to disbar Jimmy. Clearly the dude is flawed in many
>ways, but he has his reasons for his actions towards Jimmy.

Agreed, but again, you just hit the nail on the head: Chuck's incessant efforts to hurt Jimmy are what have guided him down this path. A villain who creates a definitively lesser villain only underscores the fact that he's a villain.