[Shujin]

Oh boy, imagine beating up on someone who genuinely tries to break the mold for people and give them some change of pace at his own expense.

While my view of "good villains" is different as well I can see the different notions of it and what is simply more suited for SL2 environment, cause its mechanics without a doubt HIGHLY influence how villains are made and played.

SL2 in general, is in my opinion simply not a great place for "Good villains". Imagine a villain who ticks all the boxes. He is subtle, unassuming maybe, building it up over many many months maybe even years, following a specific goal.
99% of the playerbase would never even know they were a villain, maybe even describe them as shallow cause they never get to see the actual planning behind it or the RPs that happen, cause they are smart and subtle, so everyone would actually find them boring, cause they are TOO good. Too smart or whatever.
That doesn't work in SL2 very well. Also feels from a playing perspective extremely unrewarding for the most part cause you only get some interesting Organic RPs once in a millenia and you do not TRUELY have anything you acheive in the time aside from "RP achievements" that again, do not matter to like 99% of the playerbase. Thats a SL2 system problem, mainly, I believe. Its overall just still a bit to stiff imo. (If you have it all planned out with a couple of friends thats a different story of course, but I wouldn't call that organic. Also mostly just matters for that group then.)
A good villian who never truely achieves anything. "Event-Villians" have the advantage of GM powers on their side, which makes that work out better for them, but as a normal player? You do not really have the liberty to do such in a meaningful way.

The other option is of course the more open Villian attempt, that has very basic motivations that are simply set within their character (which is described in the guide and Sawrock, polk, myself and most that play villains usually play alot.) These are ALOT more fun to play as or against cause things HAPPEN. You do not have to worry about longterm subtle moves (which by the way, get usually metagamed anyway and people ruin it that way.) Which of course comes at the expense of actually meaningful characters as apple says...Hard to get invested into mass-produced characters (also goes for good characters too, by the way.). Also a side product of the Games systems and lack of a longterm Progression system and a too easy way to repurpose characters with mechanically absolutely no consequences.
These villains are most certainly better fit to lift up "hero" characters who manage to chase them down. I'd probably call them more "Fodder" villains. Have a very limited lifespan but atleast people can actually interact with them, versus the mysterious smart villain. However it IS more fun to play them, as they actually reach much more in a way shorter time then the "good villian" and is therefore more engaging to play.

Playing GOOD villains is difficult. SL2s general system does not really support that either, making it even more of a hassle. In the end a good "villain" story is however written in cooperation with good protagonists, Protagonists who keep cutting certain things short are just supporting the "Recycling" process which makes it harder to get to know those villains and their motivations. But finding the balance between that is just veeeery difficult, cause at some point it just makes no sense for the "heroes" to just let them go either without making it feel unrewarding to even engage in this.

Overall, the guide is certainly way too long. It has however a few VERY important points that people SHOULD follow. Even if its not always easy.
Communication, OOC Fairness and consent are important to make stuff feel fun.
Which I say, who doesn't trust people in this community and therefore dislikes communicating out of fear that it gets metagamed. Something everyone needs to kinda get used to.

Long story short:
Playing a Villain much as a Hero is a preference case. No real right or wrong answer. Take form the guide what you want or nothing at all.
how you play with and treat your fellow players however is not a preference, and toxic tribalism will always be bad for the game. Its way to present in SL2 and needs to get toned down alot.
In the end I think what we need is LESS pvp exclusive forms of antagonism, and more RP focused but thats ultimately up to dev.

So pretty much agree with Soul above here.