I can't agree here, these are both pretty carefully established to make the player choose to stick up for Hobbes. Cobra and Rollins are both entirely right from the start... but they're set up to seem unpleasant so you dismiss them immediately. It's all in the service of making the player feel genuinely betrayed when Hobbes is revealed as the traitor... you couldn't get past Cobra's (justified!) anger to take her seriously and how her death seems like your fault.
(Rollins' conspiracy stuff is a little diminished by the newsbriefs being cut since the idea was that you'd see for yourself that Confed was lying about the state of the war... but there's still a bunch of that in there, including as setup for Vagabond's little arc with Dr. Severin/Pax 7!)
He's the comic relief but I'd also say he's also presented as the most "realistic" character in the bunch... fighter pilots are typically known for their brash type A personalities and so much for not sitting around having conversations with their CO about their feelings
This was not so conscious a choice but the result of overages in the shoot which caused a bunch of scenes to be killed late in the process... that's also why you don't get transitions on the Intrepid, the second unit stuff that needed Hamill especially got devastated by the delays. As scripted (and boarded!) the plan was to have a message from the lady you chose in the previous game breaking up with you which would play in a scene on Blair's farm (followed by a message from Maniac asking him to come to the legally-distinct-from-the-Star-Wars cantina).