Iβll be real, I am one of the people that believe Hot Rod doesnβt really have a reason to be an autobot just as much as I donβt think he has a reason to be a decepticon. I just also donβt think people should ignore it as much as it sucks. All of idw tends to be insanely inconsistent character wise and frankly the hallucinated plot and personality people give rodimus in order to ignore autocracy is arguably worse, lmao. I do agree a major part of it is classism, people do this with just about anyone whoβs even hinted to have been lower/working class in transformers
i just really dont get why people think that. if the choices in the Oncoming War are Autobot, Decepticon or Do Nothing, hot rod definitely demonstrates himself as someone unwilling to do either of the final two options. hes met megatron and hates him, and feels a personally responsibility to stand up for whats right. he believes orion pax is different than the others in iacon bc of the speech he gave at the senate and later on in dark cybertron says that optimus is the perfect ideal of a prime that he aspired to. i think hot rod at the very least has more reasons to be an autobot than he has anything else, especially w the necessary destruction of nyon giving him no real "neutral" option.
i think the gap between hot rod and rodimus characterization is also just bc of the 4 million years of war that comprise most of his life in between. and tbh the gap isnt even that big- to me hes one of the most consistently written characters in the idw, if youre really looking at the main guys in the story.