We're meant to respect James, not necessarily like him. If some do, well, the editors aren't going to mind a bit, but they are not going out of their way to frame him that way. He's being presented as the player who should win, but we're also being given the reasons why he won't, namely his arrogance and his abrasiveness, particularly toward Peih Gee (the alliance that should have been).
Regardless of the overall editing intent with James, I think the viewers are intended to be firmly in James' corner in his confrontations with PG. He was portrayed as the hapless victim of a thrown challenge in which he was shown to be giving his all; PG was then shown to be arrogantly telling him that he might be spared if he was to beg for his game life; then, when the boot was on the other foot, PG offered him an alliance which to him made as much sense as Cirie being offered a dictionary when she already had an encyclopedia.
PG has been described as the devil. It looks like temptation will bear fruit (so to speak) but it will not be James will be responsible. He has warned repeatedly against it but, like Cassandra of ancient times, he is the one likely to bear the fall-out from Eden's loss.
