I am quoting the books with cunning and ambitious. It also mentions resourcefulness.

It's just that the author is not that good with her craft and she made them Evil, shallow house in practice.

Or maybe it's the other way, and she did that on purpose, so that the early children book has visible low stake antagonist Malfoy, who does not really matter compared to BBEG.

I thought about it. But low ceiling and the fact they are described as basically background noise made me uninterested ultimately. :-)

Yeah, that's why I mentioned the only notable character with positive attributes.