There's "loyalty" and then there's "avoidance of severe negative consequences" (a.k.a. fear).
As a leader myself, I recognize that situations may call for one or the other tactic.
Wendell is a piece of crap but he did have some semblance of professionalism, which admittedly carried him pretty far. Let's see how well he handles Selene Wildebees, who is of comparable fighting skill and precedence, character-wise.
It looks like Gus is building a grand house of cards here, that has built Bettina, Felicia and Tona into it already. Captain Happy may yet be inserted as well. The VR propaganda machine question remains: Who is it supposed to fall on?
My guess would be that Gus hopes that the falling card house will bury as many of them as possible, with him as the last man stand- er, I think you get the metaphor...
