I seem to recall that back in 2016, people were happy with Pence as a running mate because he balanced the ticket: he was loyal to Trump, his Christianity gave the ticket religious credibility, and he was a mainstream conservative rather than a maverick populist.
He had huge approval amongst Republicans before Jan. 6 when he retroactively became a worse version of Benedict Arnold and they all suddenly decided they never liked him anyway.
Same thing happened with Sarah Palin in 2008: she was praised as a good contrast to the more moderate McCain and revitalized the campaign. Up until they lost and everyone decided she was the worst person in the world.
We were always at war with Eastasia.