My take, for what it is worth! Extracts:

Lou_Para among others -

• Vito may have “preferred compromise over violence” but never shied away from violence to get his own way
• Vito's “unpleasant resolution options” "if a man would not listen to [his] reason" - Vito actually enjoyed the power and fear that he wielded - comply or die
• Vito 'justifies' his friends in politics rule his “(gambling,unions,etc)” business as a -- harmless vice [not for the victims]
• sure thing Vito had the foresight to cultivate “the widest political influence” - Mobster carrying those politicians in his pocket, like so many nickels and dimes

lucab19 “He [Vito] also wasn't averse to a bit of brutality” - a bit?! - "though of course committed by someone other than himself" among others -
1. Murder, extortion, threat of lethal violence, comply or die
2. the way Vito himself shot Fanucci, cut open Don Ciccio....
3. band leader's brains or his signature on Vito's Godson, Fontane's release contract
4. should anything happen to Michael on his return from Sicily -