>>149537217Zuko had to be convinced by Iroh to free Appa, he was there to use Appa as bait to capture Aang. If Iroh hadn't been there things would've gone tits up for Aang.
>that time time zuko held off azula at the air temples by knocking her off her ship, giving the gang a window to escapeThis didn't happen. They were already on their way out with Appa and Azula hadn't even begun to chase them yet when Zuko showed up behind her. The gaang had to double back to save Zuko from the fall because he didn't knock Azula off the blimp they knocked each other off. In fact if you watch the scene the gaang completely forgot about Zuko and probably would've left him behind if he hadn't challenged Azula. So that fight benefitted Zuko more than anyone.
You're the only one playing mental gymnastics here.
I'm not arguing Zuko wasn't a better friend to Aang than any of Korra's team, he definitely wasn and that's a low bar to overcome, But he was also a geniune obstacle to Aang in a way none of Korra's friends ever were and probably did just as much to slow down Aang's journey as he did to help it in the end. The only reason his help might have outweighed his antagonistism was because he failed, a lot, at fighting and capturing Aang