i would rather fight someone who claims that gus and max were just bros than that gus would use kids for his buisness. like that dude is still a drug distributor. but suddenly using kids would be "too far" for him?? idc if gus said he didnt. he later threatened to kill walters kids. i could def see gus do that or just not give a shit if someone who works for him used that tactic. he only had to speak about it bc jesse brought it up.
The fact that Gus was doing what he was doing for a nobler cause than the Salamancas (avenging his loved one's death) doesn't make him any better and doesn't excuse all the shit he's done. Actually, it might even make it worse, if he really believed to be that much different from the Salamancas.
I'm sure he wouldn't personally choose to use kids for reliability reasons, but if those working under him hire kids (which constantly happens in cartels and gangs!) and it doesn't seem to create any problems, he wouldn't care. And no, killing Walter's wife, son, and infant daughter was not just a threat, he'd have done it, same way he'd have killed Nacho's dad. Same way he did it multiple times for sure.
Everything Gus says to other characters are often just lies and manipulations. “A man provides for his family” is the exact same thing as telling Jesse that he would never use children.
Gus is still a drug kingpin. There's no moral drug lords. They're all shitty. They sell poison to people and make billions off of them, their addiction and their overdoses. They kill to make points. They blackmail to manipulate. They torture to get information.
Besides, once Max's death was avenged, it's not like he'd have dropped his drug empire, he'd have kept doing the same thing.
At least the Salamancas know exactly who they are and don't pretend or claim to be any better. They know they don't care. They know that the shit they do they do for money and power.
But they're shown as bidimensional compared to all the other characters (apart from Lalo, who's kind of the exception) and always as antagonists, so it's easier to empathize with the other characters' shittiness.
