He's an angel that kinda sorta fell, was a little broken for a while, then went crazy with power, then was possessed by creatures so terrible that even God didn't like them, took the traumatizing weight of nearly two year's worth of torture by Lucifer, got stuck in Purgatory - and all (most) of the while remained utterly loyal to Dean in particular. It isn't surprising that this is the slant fandom is leaning towards. At this point, crosses mean shit for anything.