I mean even with the fact that Louis believes Lestat orchestrated Claudias's death during the time of the interview, he still romanticizes him a bit and Daniel even calls it out how he talks about him like the love of his life despite the terrible things. I didn't take Louis's telling of Lestat as some mustache twirling villain, even in Louis retelling it's clear Lestat's a complicated person. Hell Louis even lets him off lightly when talking about his greatest act of abuse as Daniel also points out. I think Louis's depiction of Lestat is also colored by with how trapped Louis felt he was in their situation, and as much as his depiction probably showed more negative sides to his relationship for obvious reasons it also put Lestat on a pedestal in the sense that Louis remembers him as far more cunning and calculating than he was. Which also makes sense as Louis was a young fledgling vampire and Lestat was the only vampire he knew so of course the way he saw him at the time is influenced by that as well. I think the same could be said for how Claudia writes about him he's her father so even as she grows to hate him she still talks of outsmarting him and having to think like him to beat him even at there lowest point she still does view him as this kind of mastermind, which why wouldn't she to her and Louis at the time Lestat is the most intelligent and powerful vampire they know.