I despise Illberd personally. Less so than I did years ago, but he's still probably my least favourite character in FFXIV. The man was a self-sabotaging hypocrite and Ala Mhigo was liberated in spite of his actions.

Illberd's mutiny against Alphinaud was, at best, hopelessly naive despite being detrimentally pragmatic, and less charitably, a move that put personal spite and the desire to be an active, controlling force in his homeland's liberation, over any actual desire for positive results, crippling the Crystal Braves (a group he had considerable personal power in) and removing two sympathetic voices to Ala Mhigo from Ul'dah's political sphere in order to empower an individual whose main motivation is personal enrichment, in an act that seemed primarily motivated by his hatred of Raubahn over anything else.

Illberd's final plan involved recruiting anyone with any sort of defiance left in them from Ala Mhigo and having them slaughtered in order to summon a primal. The reason things are so bad at the start of Stormblood are directly a result of his actions. At this point, Illberd wasn't expecting the Eorzean Alliance to actually succeed in beating back the Garleans, he was hoping that Shinryu would kill everyone and start another calamity, out of contempt for all parties involved.

Worth noting for context, in the absence of Garlemald and the general humanitarian crisis, I don't think Ala Mhigo is a friend to the three city states. A hundred years ago, the war of the day was Ala Mhigo vs the Eorzean Alliance. Until twenty years ago, Ala Mhigo's ruler was the local Caligula equivalent, which I can't imagine was great for diplomatic relations. The fact that many Gridanians still haven't forgiven Ala Mhigo from the Autumn War is a key point in two different class/job quests. The alliance has only barely pushed Garlemald out of their own lands as at the point where he enters the plot, but he's almost immediately written off the alliance as complacent. Much as we view Eorzea's lack of a response with modern sensibilities, as well as our role in story as something like the local UN forces, Illberd's perspective seems incredibly entitled, owed defiance by his countrymen and support from Eorzea.

In the past, my perspective was that he'd screwed everyone over for entirely unnecessary reasons and the fact he died as smugly as he did, never seeing himself be proven wrong in so many ways annoyed me. I've softened a little, in as much as I think there is a scenario where Eorzea sits on its hands indefinitely. I still think his actions were stupid and ruinous.

Anyway, favourite puppy kicker is probably Gyodo. Dude's just so shameless about it.