I am strong believer in William not ever favoring Michael. The reason is in why he is so attached to Vanessa and Henry.
William likes the chase. Michael is too quick to follow Williamβs orders without second guessing. He spends his life going after his fatherβs approval and even going as far as killing half the town.
There is no challenge for William in trying to keep Michael around. Vanessa, on the other hand, is the one who tried to push away William away. Sure she became complicit with his crimes but because she had no choice. She tried to isolate from the family all the way to adulthood. Even after Vanessa grew up and got a job to support herself, she could not escape from her fatherβs grasp.
This chase that William has with Vanessa is part of their toxic bond. And it is the similar type of dynamic that he has with Henry. With him William always goes from hating to praising him under the same breath. William values a relationship in the amount of adrenaline he gets from it, which is exactly what he gets when heβs around Henry.
Henry made no active efforts to escape from him since they were both feeding off from each other in a unhealthy amount. William loves that even if it means hurting his favorite people in the process.
Henry and Vanessa are the only ones who were favored by William just as much as they were hurt by him. For Michael the obsession is one sided, and I will love for him to have a wake up call in fnaf 3 once he has a little reunion with his father
