To be fair, Byrne-era Luthor is basically a Miller-era Kingpin made respectable by high society, yes, but my point still stands - both Norman's power and his insanity have been used as deus ex machinas to excuse HUGE amounts of storytelling fail, from hiring a genetically modified actress to pose as Aunt May to hiring Mysterio to fake his own son's death, and then LYING IN HIS OWN THOUGHT BALLOONS about his son's "death."
His character has been mishandled by hacks like Slott and Byrne--I'm not doubting that. But that's just like saying that Spider-Man fails as a character because of his bastardization at the hands of Quesada.
And the fact is, Norman's single-minded obsession with Spider-Man is fundamentally irreconcilable with setting him up as an aspiring Master Of The World, because he ALREADY HAD POWER, countless times, and he THREW IT ALL AWAY, to go chasing after a character who, according to Marvel itself, is regarded as one of the more minor superheroes by the general public of the MU.
I haven't read Dark Reign or Secret Invasion, but from what I've understood, Norman gaining 'absolute power' in this case fell on his lap after he killed the Skrull Queen so he's taking advantage of it to further his own agenda. But I don't see how one negates the other--Ellis's Thunderbolts run clearly showed that Norman's still obsessed with Spider-Man even if he has his hands in a piece of the pie. I have more problems with the public accepting Norman rather than him acting the way he is right now.
Nothing you've shown me has changed my mind on this score.