I think what hindered Mike was the time period after the first allegation and right when Pac came out of jail. It seemed that fans became split into 3 groups:
1. the folk that grew up listening to Mike as a boy
2. the folk that grew up listening to Mike after the Thriller album
3. the folk that didn’t know a thing about Mike until Dangerous and the first allegations..

now the folk in group one look at Mike like “that’s a damn shame, but he was tight back in the day.”
group two would say man he fell off since bad
group three would say…he sucks

i guess what i’m sayin is…perception of Mike depends on the generation and how well-schooled you are on Mike’s music