there like… does seem to be an undercurrent that the great races meet O'Neil and are like "the tauri are close" and then meet Carter or Jackson and are like "on second thought…"

my read is that they appreciate O'Neil's pragmatic simplicity. he doesn't try to impress the other races, he tries to achieve the best possible outcome in any given situation. Carter and Jackson i think remind the other races of the ancients too much and from everything we can tell, the ancients aren't very good neighbors. the asgard even seem to believe that O'Neil is more advanced than the other tauri, and i think that's because he somewhat hews away from Ancient approaches and more toward Nox.

that said i do have critiques of O'Neil given that he exists as an air force propaganda tool