Bonfire of the Vanities: Was Sherman a Good Guy All Along?

Okay, y'all, I just watched "The Bonfire of the Vanities," and I'M SO TORN. Like, I know Sherman McCoy is supposed to be this awful Wall Street guy, living the high life while everyone else is struggling. And yeah, he IS kind of a jerk at the beginning. But honestly, I spent the whole movie feeling sorry for him! Hear me out. He gets caught up in this terrible situation, and literally everyone around him is using him. Maria Ruskin, his mistress, is only interested in his money. Fallow, the reporter, is just trying to make a name for himself. Even the Reverend Bacon...I mean, come ON! Everyone is trying to ride his downfall to get ahead. It made my heart hurt, actually. To see him lose everything like that. My theory is...maybe Sherman wasn't a bad person, just ridiculously out of touch. He was living in a bubble, and this whole thing basically burst it. The scene where he's riding the subway at the end, absolutely broke me. He looks so lost and bewildered. Like, he's finally seeing the world for what it really is. And I think maybe that's the point? That he was a victim of the system too, in a weird way? He was just playing the game he thought he was supposed to play, and it completely destroyed him. I know a lot of people probably see him as getting what he deserved, but I think it was more complicated than that. What do you guys think? Am I totally off base here? Did anyone else feel even a little bit sorry for him? Or am I just a big softie, like my husband always says? Haha. Also, I thought it was really interesting that they portray the media as such a bloodthirsty mob, and politicians as opportunistic vultures. I wonder if that was to show how easy it is to make a scapegoat of someone that already has a bad reputation. What are your thoughts on the media's role in the film?