Writers' Room:
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NOOOOO YOURE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE HOMELANDER! YOURE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE EWWEE! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE BUTCHER! WHY ARENT YOU WATCHING FOR THE MUTE ASIAN, BLACK MAN AND STRONG WOMYN THATS WHO WE WRITE THE SHOW FOR.
It's actually kind of ironic that people stick with the show for Homelander. Anthony Starr's portrayal of the character is basically similar to Jude Law's portrayal of Lenny Belardo/Pius XIII from
The Young Pope. The writers probably imagined the worst possible villain given their tastes, but instead, they created a character that people are immensely fascinated with. Pius XIII was created as a satire of hardline Catholicism that the libs still despise, but instead of hating the guy, the audience loved him, and some religious critics even praised him as a good depiction of tradition and authentic religious devotion.
Like Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin before him, Homelander has that effect as well. The writers expect you to hate his guts, but he genuinely has to fight threats from inside and outside Vought. He's forced to repudiate a woman he loved, he's forced to struggle as Gus Fring uses him as a corporate puppet, the love of his life dies, then he pulls a fast one on the guy and takes control of Vought, only to struggle and nearly collapse when Soldier Boy appears. While the audience still knows that he's evil, he's still the most compelling character around, even more so than Butcher, who just comes off as a ruffian.
Homelander has to play the roles of the gentleman and the psycho, and he plays both well. His mirror monologue showed his inner demons and his struggle with his own humanity. Between Starlight being preachy and Butcher being a thug as always, Homelander retains his spot as the most-watched character in the show, especially since, aside from being the strongest character, he's the one with the most character development, and his presence makes any scene important.
The Boys would be nothing without him.
Going back to the Lenny Belardo example, I can also see audience members who despise the "club" of Hollywood Christian-haters like Seth Rogen unironically admire Homelander, since he's a Superman-style character who encourages the Christian community in his America, preaching about bringing the wrath of God down upon the enemy, and openly participating in baptisms. They know this is the show writers portraying Christianity in a negative light, so they unironically admire someone the writers want people to hate. Similar to how comic readers several decades ago admired Rorschach from
Watchmen for being tough on criminals, even though series creator Alan Moore wanted people to hate him.
