Minutes after Neelix chucks Michael Jonas into a plasma fire, thus disintegrating Michael Jonas, he’s cracking jokes with Tuvok. That’s like Khan Noonien Singh levels of cold if you stop and think about it. What does that jovial exterior actually hide?
Yeah, they flanderized him so hard he immediately lost all of his history and impact on the ship. Suddenly hes the “smelly food clown” guy.
Motherfucker was a key navigator, negotiator, guide and scavenger. He is the main reason Voyager survived its first years at all, but they did him so dirty everyone hated him throughout the show.
He did such a good job of pretending to be inoffensive and harmless that the writers themselves were fooled.