I think he's one of the better characters in the movie and think he's a decent enough bad guy, but it's true that the movie suffers from fumbling a lot of execution with him. The 14 wishes line is probably meant to be a sign of his being out of touch, but it should have been rewritten to better exemplify the absurdity of it. Something like, "I granted 1.1% of their wishes" better sells how many he's not granting compared to just raw numbers. As well, the movie fumbles At All Costs by not doing enough of a visual difference between Asha and Magnifico. It would have been a perfect time to see him treating the wishes casually, like stolen artifacts some rich asshole has mounted on his wall. They don't lean far enough into it though, even if it seems like that was the intent with Asha appreciating their individuality while he just spins them around because they're shiny.

The movie's pacing is one of its biggest weaknesses, absolutely. Asha's friend group needed to be cut down to just Dahlia and Simon, Amaya needed to be getting uncomfortable much earlier in the movie (or else have stayed evil like her original concept), and various other changes to the type of framing and level of focus put onto things.