Why?

As someone who has done neither: taking a life with a melee weapon requires a commitment and a lack of separation from your actions that a firearm does not

They are, in fact, not doing okay :'D

Like, Helen was good at being the Distortion, which is why she seemed so (over)friendly. Michael, in contrast, kind of sucked at it. I made a post about that years ago that I'll never find again that went into more detail about that, but essentially: even when he acted confusing, he made genuine attempts at explaining things. It tried particularly hard to accurate describe its own nature; it literally told Jon directly that it wanted him "to understand, even if it d[id] go against [its] nature."

The Distortion itself is a part of the Spiral, AKA It Is Not What It Is AKA It Is Lies. Helen acted helpful, because she wasn't. Michael acted like an enemy despite never working against the Archival staff. The only times Michael actually interacted with them, he 1) showed Sasha how to defeat Jane Prentiss, 2) tried to warn Jon about Not-Sasha, 3) gave Jon a headstart against Not-Sasha, and 4) gave Martin and Tim a door into the corridors. In that last one, I think it is very worth noting that they later got out of the corridors, and Michael didn't come for them again the way it did Helen Richardson. He pretty much just removed them from a situation that was likely to get them killed. When it showed up in MAG 101, I think it was planning to do the same thing — save Jon from Nikola while threatening to kill him, and then let him miraculously find a way out.

Qpr second base: meeting them in the form of a memory bound to a cursed book and finding complete mutual understanding with that fraction of a person that no longer exists

Tim found out Jon was bi because he saw him at the local pride parade, and he made such a "No way!" scene that multiple people had to ask him to quiet down.

Including Jon.