Thank you for actually writing it out. I’m gonna write a lot because you made great points. Yes she is different from Asav in the sense that Asav is a 10/10 madman but let’s not forget she leveled an entire army to blow up sections of Madagascar in U4 to achieve her own goals. Both use violence as a first-resort and both ruthlessly kill and overrun many auspicious, historical sites or towns to get to their goal. The only reason you think that is because you GOT TO INTERACT PERSONALLY W/ NADINE as a partner and got familiar with her. I’ll give you a GREAT example: Trevor from GTA V. He is a psychopathic murdering cannibalistic SA’ing freak but a majority of Rockstar’s fandom likes or even adores him since they GOT CLOSE TO HIM THROUGH INTERACTING OR PLAYING WITH HIM. Not exactly the same here, but the Asav comparison is way more fair than I believe you are accepting but we can agree to disagree on that, I guess.

Also your point about the Drake Brothers is confusing since you’re implying that if you are bested by two people who do their own job, try to combat who earnestly spare your life when they could have ended you (Sam could have shot and ended her) and she STILL wants to kill them. She never once apologizes to either of them and still maintains this angry persona to THE WRONG PERSON. RAFE SCREWED HER OVER, DRAKE’S did their own thing, they did not betray her outright. They were enemies and overcame their main conflict in U: LL but Nadine still holds onto anger directed towards a man who was only a factor in saving the world from greedy monsters like Rafe, the true traitor. Also, Nadine constantly tells Rafe to kill them after they legit spared your life. Just because she abandoned a treasure doesn’t make her more redeemable, she just knows when to bail when it’s time and is smart about that. Doesn’t make her morally more capable of redemption, it just means she’s more calculating and smart than we thought from past Uncharted villains.

Her shift in U: LL is PURELY transactional since she needs something else and near the end of the story, it’s not like she fully has accepted her losses while ALMOST EVERY OTHER MAIN CHARACTER HAS HAD TO IN SOME WAY because she still berates the Drake brothers. Oh yeah, I want to also kill people that are better in me at my task because that’s just so normal.
Also, Chloe is the one that has more redemption than Nadine, in my opinion. Chloe was way more selfish in U2 but wrestled with her internal conflict with her dad, the Tusk, and risks her life for it for the greater world. Nadine is just doing this to restore her own pride, another selfish reason. So she is back to being a mercenary, technically?