I agree with your points. Building a stronger antagonist does strengthen the story overall. I hope I'm not too odd, but I generally can find a way to empathise with an antagonist. We all have bad sides, even those of us who hide them, so it isn't too hard to take an emotion and twist it into something that justifies an action. I might not like the antagonist, but for better or worse, he or she will have a part of me within them. I'd like to make sure that part is complete.

Thanks for writing this. It's a good series.
"There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." Tim Minear