Mike is such an interesting character because the writers kind of pull a trick on us and position him as a moral compass among his criminal peers. He is cold, calculated, but has a warmer ethical approach that sticks out in contrast to the chaotic violence of the Salamancas and Gus' ruthless menace.

Not only do we as the audience frame him as someone with higher morality, but the characters see him as a shaman of sorts that can help navigate the murky waters of the bad choice road, like Jimmy and Nacho and later, Jesse.

Through BCS they keep returning to the theme of Mike's code about people in the game and out of the game, and how it gets hard to maintain that code as things spiral out of control and the law of unintended consequences takes over. But in this last season, what I think the writers are doing is try to show us that ultimately, Mike is a man with massive blind spots, and just because you follow a code rigorously doesn't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things. They did this by discretely positioning Nacho's dad as the "true north" of morality in the BB/BCS universe, and reinforced it by showing that Kim eventually chooses to align herself more towards Papa Varga's moral outlook than Mike's, and this outlook simply cannot be comprehended by Mike despite all his "righteousness".

Papa Varga's commitment to the straight and narrow was plotted subtly and really becomes clear in the later seasons when you realize he literally may be the only adult character in both series that sets a hard line about boarding the bad choice road, even taking one step on it. All other characters, even the "good ones", still made morally gray decisions to serve themselves, except Papa Varga. The writers call attention to Mike's blind spot when he approaches Papa Varga about avenging Nacho's death and doesn't even perceive Papa's contempt and disgust, initially writing it off as the language barrier and Papa Varga's inability to understand English as the reason he isn't taking kindly to this promise of revenge. Soon we learn Papa heard him just fine, its that he despises Mike's code of "justice" and sees it as an endless loop of evil, one that Mike doesn't realize he is trapped in and acts as the boundaries of his blind spots.

And then we have Mike's declaration that Kim is "made of sterner stuff" than Jimmy -- and again the writers use it to show Mike's glaring blind spot. I personally believe Mike was in fact correct that Kim is made of sterner stuff, but the point being made is that she is stronger in a way that Mike didn't account for. She was strong enough to do the right thing. Mike's idea of strength in this situation is actually embodied more so by Jimmy --- suck it up and use whatever coping mechanism you can to expel painful feelings of guilt about your questionable actions, soon you'll get over it.

Kim essentially fulfils Papa Vargas pleas to Nacho -- either turn yourself in, or really there's nothing to talk about. If you don't make it right by owning up fully in the eyes of the law, you're just like all the other criminals. How minor or major of one doesn't matter -- you're on the bad choice road either way. It takes a few years, but Kim aligns herself with that true north of the moral compass, rather than Mike's empty version of it.

This also ties to the plot that played out with Gus and Lalo and Mike's surveillance team. Its his own blind spot, his need to protect Kaylee and Stacey, which caused Lalo to wreak havoc at Jimmy and Kim's apartment. If this blind spot wouldn't have clouded his judgement over prioritizing manpower, it may have prevented Howard's death and the fallout from that.

And of course, this all takes on a deeper, sadder context when you follow it through to Breaking Bad where Mike winds up abandoning his granddaughter, leaving her with no money, and dying at the hands of the same person he warned Jimmy to stay away from after his initial scout report in the BB ep of BCS. It was Mike's own decisions that kept him entangled in this spiraling web of chaos, as much of a bastard that Walt was, and even though Mike was correct about him being bad news from the get go. He was right, but who cares in the end.

Just a tragic character and I appreciate how much nuance they were able to add to him in BCS. Such a hard task to do and they crushed it, fleshing him and Jimmy out with this prequel.