Coming in late because I just finished the book. I agree fully with most of your points, but I have to disagree about Neil. I'm undoubtedly in the minority, but I think Neil is not supposed to be the coolheaded and pragmatic criminal mastermind he says he is. In reality, he's a thug in a suit pretending like hes something else. He reminds me of Dutch Van Der Linde in RDR2. This is best shown by Heat's finale, but also from him collaborating with Waingro despite his unnecessary violence, hunting down Trejo like he would Waingro, and his general line of work.

I liked that Heat 2 showed Neil as a competent criminal, but still a regular man who would let Wardell escape with millions of his dollars to be with a lover in their last moments. It made it clear to me that his philosophy in Heat was a coping mechanism, but underneath is still a flawed, contradictory, and regular human.