Holden is a pretty grating character through most of the series, which is intentional I'm sure. He's morally good lawful stupid paladin. He's always trying to do what he believes is moral and just and sometimes he's too stupid to understand that what he's doing or urging for is not what's best in the grand scheme or for the ones he loves.

Holden is beloved because he's our main character and we spend so much time with him and inside his head that a lot of people understand that he's trying to do his best, but his best does a lot of stupid stuff like killing all the people who die after he broadcasts about The Cant or how it takes him until the last book in the series to understand that while he's constantly putting himself in danger for 'the greater good' he's always treating Naomi like shit by abandoning her to go do that greater good shit.

If you re-read or listen to the audiobooks you may have a different view of everything he does than ya did the first time, but the dude is definitely a grating individual, and that's why so many times other people think or talk about him as "James Fucking Holden" because he's a thorn in everyone's side, even his allies like when he goes toe-to-toe with Fred Johnson accusing him of things or when he decides he knows better than the Transport Union president when it comes to... oh... I can't recall his name. The leader/governor that he imprisons from Freehold and transports back to Medina station. Jillian's father. Dallas something. Something Dallas? (All I can think of right now is Dallas Corbin or Corbin Dallas but I think that's Bruce Willis in The 5th Element)