MacArthur won a couple of Silver Stars and a CMH in WWI before your uncle was even born. But I guess you figure it would have been better if he took the hit instead of your uncle. Your opinion. Not necessarily that of historians though. His assessment of Pacific strategy was why he was the commanding officer. As to lives lost..I repeat, he lost fewer men in the entire Pacific campaign than Ike did in the invasion. That photo of him wading ashore was a giant stimulus to the people of the Phillipines who were suffering untold misery from their occupation. It gave them the courage they needed to resist and help drive the more than one million Japanese troops dug in on a thousand islands into the hands of the American forces. Propaganda is also a mighty force or haven’t you been following politics here in the USA?
I'm not qualified to pass judgment on MacArthur's personal courage, so I do not question it. He did come ashore on Leyte before that beach had been fully secured, so I will give him credit for that at least.
stimulus to the people of the Phillipines who were suffering untold misery from their occupation
By that argument, I suppose you would criticize Churchill and Ike for not rescuing the occupied populations of Norway and Denmark before going after Germany proper.
MacArthur was awarded the CMH by FDR for his service in the Philippines. MacArthur was a great and courageous soldier, but he didn’t deserve the CMH IMHO. An interesting fact is he and his father were the only father-son to be awarded the CMH.