Draper is the ideal upper class man. Every man wants to be him and every woman wants to be with him. Yet the show is about the folly and fakeness of this ideal. He's empty and he hurts people he professes to love. He is not a real person, he is a set of attributes that we wish we had. When we love him we're shown his douchebaggery, but when we hate him we're shown his thoughtfulness.

Frankly I think the strength of the show is in everything not Don Draper. He's a caricature. Maybe everybody likes him because people see what is presented. Draper shows us that he's suave and stalwart, yet at his core he's just a selfish, vapid child