Can I just say two things?
A) There is a difference between disliking character development in general, and disliking the way a certain character developed. No, I didn't want Spike in S7 to be the same Spike we saw in S2. But I didn't want the Spike we got in S7.
B) Please stop trying to argue against anti-Spuffers by comparing their story to Bangel and imply that they are being hypocrites. Despite what people tend to assume, the world is not divided into Spuffies and Bangelers. Some of us think both were bad.
I always wondered do people think Angel got more interesting when he left Buffy? It is weird Spike seems to be considered lamer at times and Angel cooler you could say. All of it over Buffy. I never thought about it seriously until now really thought about it.
I definitely think that Angel became a million times more interesting when he left Buffy. When he was with Buffy, he never matured or really grew into his own person, or seemed capable of cracking a smile. He became a much more well-rounded character once he got his own show.
This is the thing that bugs me the most about the whole Angel/Buffy/Spike thing. All three are really awesome characters that I love for the most part and have really great moments. But I find that every one of these characters becomes less interesting the more involved they are with each other. Angel and Spike for me shine brightest in scenes where Buffy isn't present. They both seem brighter, snarkier, friendlier, happier around other characters. And Buffy I love when she's interacting with Giles, Xander or Willow, where she's cute, spunky and fun-loving; when she's with a vampire she seems to be mopier, whinier, almost hollow. Even Angel and Spike, who are very entertaining together, are far better off when neither one of them is talking about Buffy. Episodes like Destiny and The Girl in Question grated on me for this very reason.
I wish Spike interacted more with Buffy's friends in S6 and S7. I would have liked to see him form a bond with someone other than Buffy.
^This. The greatest problem with Spike in the later seasons to me was how intrinsicly and exclusively his story was wound up in Spuffy. There is nothing to Spike in the last two seasons that isn't about Buffy. Everything Spike did was motivated by his love for Buffy. I think I can count the amount of scenes he shared with people who weren't Buffy on one hand.
Again we can see the similarities to Angel. What Angel lacked in those early seasons was bonds with people who weren't Buffy. He was a static character, stuck in the same version of himself. It's not healthy to be that involved in one person and nobody else in the world, and it's boring for us to see the same kind of interaction over and over again. Mixing up the character interactions keeps things fresh and interesting.
This for me is why Spike (and certainly Spuffy) was possibly at his best in S5. Yeah, I thought that his sudden realisation about being in love with Buffy was rushed and a little unbelievable and contrived, and I hated the retcons centering around it (re: Crush). But his character was kept fresh by keeping him bouncing off many other characters. Then as Harmony left, Drusillla left, Joyce died and Spike stopped having scenes with Dawn and the Scoobies, we were left with repetitive, stale scenes between Spike and Buffy, and it gave the impression that Spike literally didn't exist outside of Buffy. Like Angel, moving to the spin-off gave his character a breath of fresh air as he started to have scenes and form bonds with a variety of characters.
