When I went through IOT we studied supposedly great RAF wartime leaders, like Bader and Gibson. However, in both these particular cases there were two distinct camps - the love em and hate em.
There is a saying that you should never meet your heroes as you will only be disappointed. I met Bader once, when he visited Manston along with Adolph Galland. Galland was a perfect gentleman who chatted to everyone regardless of rank, whereas Bader managed to upset everyone, from the CO downwards.