Yes. And that's EXACTLY how FFC and PUZO wanted us, as viewers to perceive him. I've written about this many times in the past. It's a director and a writer's way of making you root for the bad guy. You look at Vito and say,

"Hey he's not that bad of a guy. He won't deal in drugs and he looks down on infidelity. He won't kill at the request of Bonasera. After all, he's not a murderer like that undertaker thinks he is. He just handing out the deserved justice. That's a man with scruples."

But when push comes to shove, he's really no better than the drug dealer, the whoremaster or the womanizing pimp. Because no matter how many times you throw it in the wash, it still comes out the same - he's a manipulating law breaking murderer. Crime is crime and sin is sin.

But we still like him and look on him with more respect than we do Tattaglia, Barzini and The Turk.