The Willers character troubles a lot of people, but actually he's very important. The book begins with him, and very nearly ends with him. He's always hanging around with the good guys, and he seems to be one himself. So what happened? Why was he dumped?
Eddie Willers' problem was that he never really used his mind. In all the scenes involving him, he was operating entirely with his emotions. He never understood the principles that separated the good guys from the others. Even in those scenes where he was being pumped for information by Galt (the "worker" at the railroad) Willers was giving information and gushing about Dagney, but always in terms of what he felt. He never took the trouble to think things through. And in the end, that's what doomed him.
So what Rand is telling us is that it's not enough to have the right feelings, or to operate on good instincts. If a man won't use his mind to understand what's going on around him, even if he finds himself on the right side and works hard, he's not going to make it. That's the lesson of Eddie Willers.
Thank you for that explanation. How clever of Rand...