“Listen, the truth is, the last year has been weird, you know? And I mean, you know, Max and Lucas and Dustin, they’re… they’re great. They’re great… It’s just. It’s Hawkins. It’s not the same without you.” Mike says this in S4EP4: Dear Billy.

I don’t think anyone (most people) are downplaying what Mike does for his other friends. It’s just that although jumping in the quarry was obviously primarily for Dustin, we don’t know what is happening in his head eg. you can’t tell me he wasn’t thinking about this being the place Will “died”. Plus I think when people “make it about Will” it’s more in the context of what the people of Hawkins would think.

Billy appreciation post of Billy being... possessive

if Max was able to write "Love, your shitty little sister, Max" to her racist and abusive step-brother,

Then I feel like Mike can and should probably be able to write "Love, Mike" to his girlfriend of however many years

But he didn't. (because he's gay 😈)

Now I do understand how these are very different uses of "I love you", and how you can say Max was saying it out of guilt, but later in s4, during mikes monologue, couldn't you say he's saying it out of guilt and obligation then too?

I'm sorry, I don't like sharing AI generated images because it's not ethical. [ I'm not the creator of this image, I don't know who did it, I’ve added AI watermark just in case X) ]

But you don't know how good that stupid picture makes me feel.