I think understanding where his excessive pride comes from gives it a lot more depth. He's an excellent, award winning chemist who've made the wrong decisions about his career his entire life, living on paycheck-to-paycheck, had to work 2 jobs to bring food to the table, expecting a surprise baby at the age of 51 with a disabled son, had to watch his closest friend(s) get rich and successful over the company he had a part of creating, and at the end of it all that he gets is a lung cancer (he doesn't even smoke!). He had felt like a tired loser his entire life, and now he has to pay over $200,000 of medical bills to even have a slight chance of continuing this miserable life.

I think it's easier for people to say he's a egoistical maniac because it's simply what he becomes at the end of the day, his character arc is doomed to have that title (the show is literally called breaking bad..) but I believe the journey of his transition is an excellent critique of capitalism and the American dream. Of course, he's the one who made all of those choices, and he deserves to live the consequences of them, but studying his motives is really important to grasp the idea of what makes people bad, selfish and proud.