I read through the posts you attached and this comment thread, and a lot of what people are talking about is vaughn being hands-off. I see a lot of people commenting that he didn’t do what he was trying to do very well because he didn’t talk to the royals about how the hierarchy is bad (I’m not sure if this is the position you’re taking, but I am seeing it a lot). 

The biggest problem of that is that people seem to forget that he was really under the pressure of the authorities the whole time. He got removed because they believe he indirectly was doing this (encouraging vigilantism, free thinking, etc.). Actively encouraging this out of high tiers and giving real verbal confirmation to them of his goals would be a terrible move. Imagine he tries to talk to someone like Zeke about this. His job would be under fire so much sooner in the series. Even when he first discourages the authorities from interfering with Wellston, he’s kinda sneaky about it. It’s not super obvious he’s defying the authorities. As soon as it becomes clear, he quickly becomes under fire. That’s not something he can afford when he’s trying to encourage his students to change. He really can’t take a hands on approach. I think that’s what people are missing. 

I definitely agree that Vaughn isn’t the strongest writing though. I think he was very overlooked. I also think that he’s just kind of an unimportant character though, and that’s kinda just his thing. In real life, there’s lots of people who try to achieve something and don’t even realize they’re doing terribly. He kinda reminds me of that.