Not only is he the most consistently written imo but I love that he has a really solid arc that carries throughout the show (which can't be said for some of the other longterm characters oof). He's also straight up just really interesting! From early on you can tell that he knows a lot about the island than almost anyone else and the fact that his morals/motivations are very unclear just makes you wanna learn more about him. He's fucked up and unhinged but also very calm and calculated which is such a brilliant combo. This is also in large part to Michael Emerson being a really captivating actor. He brings such a campy haunted ominous intensity to Ben that makes him the highlight of so many scenes.
I have a lot of hot takes about Lost as a whole after finishing it earlier this year but man do I just keep randomly thinking about my fucked up son. They really knocked it out of the park with him.
so I am a queer Ben truther but I think part of that stems from the fact that some of the writers seem to have had very stereotypical understandings of archetypes and accidentally gave Ben major “camp 80s Disney villain” energy without realizing and now here we are