I go along with you to a large extent, JCC. Michael was taken in by Roth's seeming passivity after he had Roth's best friend, Moe Green, killed; while he encroached on Roth's Nevada interests, and his determination to take over Roth's Havana empire. He seemed to think Roth was a harmless old man with a paternal interest in him.

And, I fault Michael for not being suspicious of Roth's advocacy of the Rosato brothers: Why didn't Michael question why Roth, who lived in Miami and had business in Nevada and Havana, would interest himself in an obscure dispute between Pentangeli and the Rosatos over three territories in the Bronx? And, yes, Michael's survival of the Tahoe shooting, brilliantly engineered by Roth, was sheer luck.

No doubt about it: Roth was Michael's most resourceful, most resilient, most dangerous enemy. But: Michael was smart enough to figure out that Roth, not Pentangeli, was behind the Tahoe shooting. He also figured out how, where and when Roth planned to have him assassinated. Michael had been blinded by greed for the Havana deal and wasn't able to see Roth's treachery--but he recovered his senses
and his smarts after the shooting. Roth was blinded by greed for the $2 million, and never figured out that Michael was on to him and would get to him first.