Don't mess with us, Jake Fans, we are two!!
About that, i think you forgot one thing: Character development. Yes, he was a loser, but so was basically Deryl and our MC when That-bully-i-forgot-the-name entered. It's part of his character begin as a weak fodder and grow in mind, body and maturity, even more respectable to do so when Mia got hurt by his own errors. In the end, Jake noticed all the things, and has grow to such point that almost killed MC and Deryl by himself just to fix his mistakes, fully accepting his death when defeated.