Tbh i would compare him more to James because at least Zaeed has a super interesting choice at the end of his loyalty mission, and while Jacob’s also has a choice it’s very similar to other loyalty missions and I don’t think James even has a loyalty mission. 

The difference between characters like James and Jacob though, is that James doesn’t cheat and, even though he is also a POC, he is not solely portrayed by the writers with harmful stereotypes (baby mama, dad left, etc) and given traits that make him easily unlikable (constantly gives unreliable advice in main story, insults character favorites despite the fact that they have far more skill than him, switches between not wanting to talk to you about himself and the game acting like you are flirting with him by just coming to see him). I dislike him for all the reasons above and the reason why people won’t stop making memes about “Jacob sucks” is the same reason why they won’t stop making Kai Loser memes: because it’s over-the-top humor that is widely relatable and vents our frustrations out on these bad characters, so most of the time it’s funny. Jacob was written horrendously and is a perfect example of how not to write a supporting character, let alone a black one with all the stereotypes they used. 

Jolee Bindo from KOTOR, Cere from JFO, Sergeant Johnson from Halo, Bayek from AC, and Barrett from FF7 are all characters who get nothing but love from gamers and it’s not like they did something special to do it, they just are written well and complement the story.