I love his character, I really do. When I say he's a terrible captain, is because he consistently makes choices completely in line with his character that are awful. In universe it even makes sense. Starfleet didn't expect much from this mission, it was politically motivated and his placement as captain was too. Vulcan high command is throwing humans a bone, the humans are throwing one of their own by placing the son of the guy who designed the ship at it's helm. It goes exactly how you'd expect it to go, and then suddenly transdimensional aliens from the future blow up Florida and Archer is the only guy with a ship fast enough to do something about it. Thank God Trip and T'Pol were there or the humans would have been fucked