I guess I can see the misogyny angle a little bit, but at the same time I didn't like her either. I also didn't like Walt by the end of it though, so there's that.
I think a lot of people don't like her because she's just a huge buzzkill and always seems like an afterthought to the story. She has a character arc but I never clicked with her because she never seemed as fleshed out as Walter, Jesse or any of the others.
For me she's really one of the few downsides to the story overall. Lots of missed opportunity I think.
The only sympathy for any of the characters I had coming out of the series was Jesse and Hank.
I honestly very much disagree with the bolded. If anything, I'd say she was one of the most fantastically developed characters and had much more to her than pretty much anybody else, in that she had a lot of dynamics (internal and external) playing out. While I don't have the time currently (but intend on doing so later depending on how the thread is going) to fully flesh these out, Skyler is, in many ways, the perfect wife for Walter.
At the beginning, yes, she emasculates him and she's the head of the household, but contrary to people thinking we're supposed to hate her for this, I really don't think there's anything wrong with that. Her emasculation is never mean-spirited or demoralising, it's simply a result of her role of managing the finances, which clearly needs to be done as they're strapped for cash and it's a natural fit for her as an accountant, she recognises Walter's spontaneous odd behaviour and naturally becomes worried by an uncharacteristic change in his routine and how he acts, and her care for him and her family at large is evident. Their marriage is quite tepid, sure, and Walter himself is a shell of who he is living out a mundane existence compared to what could have been, but that's hardly 'out of the ordinary'. As the first season progresses, she has to contend with the knowledge that her husband has cancer, but also has to contend with the increasing distance in their marriage combined with the credulous suspicion that her husband has been cheating on her as he's been growing increasingly distant, has disappeared for long periods of times, and is lying continuously to her (and people can say that 'she never knew', but there is enough of an indication that she was justified in her suspicion and could naturally arrive at this decision).
In the second season, this escalates even further. She has to contend with ever-increasing lies developed by Walter, even further distant behaviour and more exaggerated lies, the additional fear of infidelity and suspicion of an even greater secret, the threat that Walter's behaviour is posing to their marriage, and the incoming child. The final revelation that Walter has been lying the entire time about the second phone just serves as a sledgehammer to the idea that Walter has been honest about anything, and signals to her that she can no longer trust Walter, and that she can't stay with somebody lying to her constantly 'just' because he has cancer; it's not fair on her, it's not fair on him.
Even up to this point she isn't really under-developed; these are all interesting aspects to her character in and of themselves, especially when combined with the turbulent family dynamic she has herself, the pride she has, and her own desire for control (not nearly with the same magnitude as Walter's but definitely a factor). She's a competent, clever individual, and unlike many of the leading female roles in television shows featuring a villainous lead, she is a very pro-active character. She plays an integral role in exposing a fundamental flaw in Walter's rationalisation as to why he's doing it, and herself is an interesting, active character who is placed in an interesting position, who loves her family (or the idea of it) as much as Walter claims to love it, but won't let this blind her to the obvious destruction it's facing because of Walter's behaviour.
It's the third season and onwards where some additional, very interesting dynamics begin to enter Skyler's character. The slow acceptance of the illegal activity through Ted, the spiting of Walter in telling him that she's been unfaithful to him just as he's been unfaithful to her (in a different means) to inflict pain on him (the telling of him that is) and to try and manipulate him to leave the marriage, the element of victim-hood she has as she tries to contend with the harsh judgement of all those around her who are completely unaware of what she's going through and how she has no support, the futile ability to try and contend with Walter's continuous manipulations and to secure any 'victory' she can in the face of his scheming. Her gradual willingness to engage in his behaviour, her own manipulation and temptation from the purely practical elements of it, the desire she genuinely has to protect her family, and the sense of control she hopes to have and her naivety in assuming this is possible all serve to add additional material to Skyler's character and things which we should let frame her behaviour.
The fourth season and beyond, where she's further placed in a desperate situation and must contend with Walter's further becoming and acceptance of who he is, and the prideful, egotistical, sociopathic destructiveness he inflicts on all around him also bring her character to interesting places. While she takes the moral high ground, and is clearly a 'good person doing bad things' (a opposed to Walter's 'bad person doing bad things') her own sense of control, pride, and her commitment to her family delude her into thinking she can contain the damage. She is a decent liar, and is certainly well able to manipulate and engage in behaviour in a cold fashion, but she never considers or accepts violence as an answer in contrast to Walter who uses it as a clear tool. Whereas she likes things orderly, in control, and strives in this environment, Walter's thriving in chaos continuously throws her plans off-kilter, and she simply isn't nearly as competent in lying, manipulation, and antisocial behaviour as Walter is, and is desperately unable to contend with him and continuously struggles. She remains complicit, but there is no doubt her moral uptightedness from the previous seasons has become corrupted (finally resulting in her desperately calling for the murder of Jesse as they are about to lose all they've built after finally 'escaping' from it), and enters an oddly symbiotic relationship with Walter over their illegal operations even if she is never as gleeful in the circumstances as he is, and utterly wants out. A telling shot is in Ozymandias; she chooses the knife over the phone when faced with the death of her brother, whereas Walter Junior unflinchingly goes to it and calls the police. She reflects many aspects of Walter, some of them in a much more competent light (she's much more controlled than Walter is, for one), and some of them far more flawed (she's good at manipulation, but not remotely as good as Walter, and certainly isn't nearly as competent at rationalising her own behaviour, recognising the wrong she's doing in not going to the police or leaving, but still doing it anyway).
I think there's a lot more to her character than just this, and a lot of this is very brief and I've not backed up nearly as much as I would like to (instead throwing out a general summary which hits upon a lot of the interesting aspects affecting her behaviour), but I definitely don't agree that she is under-developed at all, she has a huge amount going in her favour in that regard. Whether somebody finds these dynamics interesting, or likes her, is another matter entirely, but I don't think it's fair to say that she isn't developed as well as the other characters; after Walter (or maybe even far beyond him given that he's a, relatively speaking, more simplistic character to discuss), I think she has the most going for her in relation to development, and reading into her character, it's just a lot more understated and subtle than many of the characters more directly in the drug trade element of the show.
