The thing is, Archie’s character was designed to be non-sympathetic by Lear who called Archie Bunker “a horse’s ass”.
It backfired and Archie became a very endearing sympathetic figure. Kind of a tragic hero trying to hold on to a way of life under attack from all quarters. Yes, he was rough around the edges, but there was always a fundamental logic to his view point.
Actually, at the end of the series, he becomes the heroic figure. Meathead has an affair and leaves his family. Archie, on the other hand, after Edith dies, ends up raising an adopted daughter. If Lear was trying to portray him as a horse’s ass, he sure did a poor job of it.