It seems that I'm not the only one that feels that way about MM. "All or nothing."
And simply, MM has been very lucky. Of all the paint exchanging he's been involved in, he's only been down in 3 races. How many riders have not finished a race because of some sort of involvement with MM?
Don't get me wrong he is a great rider, I'm a big fan and Motogp would be very boring without him.
There are quite a few examples of him settling for something other than 1st though...a couple times last year, and a couple times the year before. Including the last race in Valencia that won him the championship...he showed very smart riding in that race in particular, despite JLo trying his best to punt him off.
That doesn't mean he didn't make a mistake this race, as he clearly did. I'm just saying that classifying him as a win it or bin rider is incorrect.
As far as other riders being impacted, I don't think many...especially in MotoGP. Pedrosa last season was a fluke accident. Bautista this year was Bautista's fault...if you haven't watched it from MM's on-board please do (you need the GP subscription).
No argument that he's very aggressive though...sometimes overly so. Just like Rossi.