That doesn't sound terrible, to be honest. Yes it makes him look sympathetic, and I get that people would be against that portrayal, but if it was established that he was regretful (he wouldn't be due to his pride, but again: hypothetical) then that seems the course to take. They could have easily made God look like the bad guy and have him force a punishment, then have Lucifer point out that this is why he rebelled and encourage humans to join him. A similar portrayal is shown in the Lucifer comics. He never repents (in fact, doubles down on his anti-God stance several times) but the angels still treat him with respect and friendship. The whole plot can be summarized with "Hey brother, good to see you! what have you been up to?" "I hate our dad" "Yeah...yeah, we know" "Are you going to try and stop me?" "I kind of have to. Or, you could stop this and come home, we miss you" ".....I hate our dad"