Neil was a respected Mafioso BUT he made several mistakes and was always under indictment which is why he would have made a bad boss.
He was under indictment, but so was Paul. Had they lived to the sentencing, they would both have gotten 100 years like everybody else (at least there doesn't seem to be any reason to suppose their outcome would have been different from the rest), so this specific factor was a disadvantage for both, not just Neil.
