I think that you have a good point there about human nature. While I understand that Kurata's fear drove him insane, it made me dislike him to the point where he was annoying to me, as apposed to being seen as a cool villain.
As for Etemon, I never really took him serious as a villain. Other than getting all of the tags and crests, the only thing I remeraber liking about his arc was how it eventually led to Taichi and Agumon returning to the human world in a really awesome episode.
I also thought that Takato was a refreshing change of pace. I kind of liked how he went from kind of a daydreaming kid to the leader of the group of kiRAB with their own Digimon partners. Plus, as I mentioned before, I loved how he bonded with Guilmon.
