That's just ridiculous word play and doesn't strike me as arguing in good faith.
I agree with your sentiment, and if MC didn't do the outright movie villain thing and, to use MC's own words, "pull strings behind the scenes" I would agree with you entirely. Now, I'll admit I'm kind of mixing two points here, but I feel the what and the how and the why are closely related to why I see almost all his actions in a negative light. Now, it's like 5:30 here and I haven't gotten any sleep so I probably shouldn't get into a debate right now, but I'll at least say his internal monologues about why he does things warps everything about how I perceive his actions. As it should, I think you'll agree.
As for Nojiko, I agree that he been really mature about this whole Nick thing, but I bet €10 (not really, 2020 has left me flat broke) that if Nick shows any signs of not being "good enough" for MC's mother figure, MC will develop some outright psychotic ploy to get rid of him.