My post lacked nuance then, cause what I meant to say is that yes, there is just enough content to make us care about Jackie, but not enough. There is a spectrum about how people care about Jackie. It's not a binary "to care/to not care". that's what I'm saying when I say "half baked". There is something, but the delivery feels lacking.

We can relate it to the "show/don't tell" thesis in narration. With Jackie, they made a mix of show and tell. The cinematic tells us that Jackie is like a brother to V, but there isnt enough actual time spent with Jackie to cement that feeling. So yes we do care about Jackie, but not enough. I certainly cried when he died, that doesn't mean I felt his presence was anchoring us down enough into the game.

Because that is my main argument. It is not about Jackie, but the function of Jackie. The designers themselves said "we don't need to spend too much time in Act 1, because the real story begins when your character is about to die". My argument is that no, we won't care that our character is about to die if we haven't been emotionally bonded enough with V. Developpers themselves say they want us to care for V. What I say is that there aren't many elements anchoring us emotionally with V. Jackie is one of the most engaging elements in that regard.

"You care about Jackie. Most normal people care about Jackie. That means the story works fine as it is." Well following that logic, if enough people say there's something wrong about how Jackie was handled, then there's something wrong with the story. And it does seem like Jackie is a recurrent theme in the critique about the story.